Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Lent Blog starts tomorrow.

If you just want to view Lent posts, click Lent under the labels heading in the right-hand side-bar

I have had an idea. During Lent I'm going to try and make an entry to the blog each day with some relevant reflection. True to the technical definition of Lent, the 40 days exclude the Sundays (otherwise Lent is 46 days long) so I may take a break 1 day in 7. I'm sure there's a precedent for that somewhere...

No idea if it will work, but I'll give it a try, and maybe someone might even read/comment from time to time.

In the meantime today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, or Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday. It's the day the good stuff, such as eggs got eaten up before the austerity of Lent. (Apparently yesterday, Monday, is known as Collop Monday, when pieces, 'collops', of meat would be eaten up as well. You learn something new every year). So pancakes it is tonight.

It's also the day for shriving - confessing - before Lent begins. Given the Ash Wednesday service has so much penitence in it, I'm not quite sure why it was deemed necessary. Maybe today is for personal confession one-one with a priest/minister and tomorrow is when we do it corporately.

Finally, there's the question of whether to give something up for Lent, or start something new. If you're stuck for ideas or need help to meet that challenge, there's always the Cold Turkey site to help givers-up of stuff.

Personally I'm going for Lent as a transforming season, rather than plain abstinence. Another option you could go for is at the 40daysprayer website. The tag line is "Discovering more ways to pray: 40 Ways in 40 Days!". It's an initiative of the North Lancashire Methodist District

1 comment:

ccap said...

I think your lent blog is a great idea. (I found your blog by searching for lent.) I'll definitely read it.