Today is Fat Tuesday, which nowadays means much revelry and partying, but in the olden days, it referred to using up the dairy and fats in your house before fasting for Lent. Lent can be a pwoerul wonderful season. Luckily, marketers haven't figured out a way to capitalize on abstinence, almsgiving, confession and such. So we're free to dwell on our mortality and salvation, devote ourselves to prayer, and reconcile ourselves with God without annoying music blaring in stores or a barrage of advertising. A blessing, it is, having this religious season be ignored by the market.
So what's it gonna be for you this Lent? Giving up on sweets, alcohol, smoking, gossip? Devoting time every day to prayer, the rosary, Eucharistic Adoration or reading the Bible? What will you give up so you can spend that money on a terrific charity? (Speaking about the rosary, The Anchoress has a nice "weird" blogpost on that here.) Many opportunities in Lent, get ready! And it's not just a Catholic thing either.
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