Lent - 1st week

In my last post we learned all about Fat Tuesday. I haven't had a chance to come back and post the followups because the universe went bonkers, which has been my life recently so I should be getting used to it.

Well, Wednesday (the day after Fat Tuesday) was Ash Wednesday or the first day of Lent. Lent is observed by most Christian churches. In Ash Wednesday, one fasts until after 3pm, then attends services which place the sign of the cross in ashes on your forehead. The ashes are from the leftover palms from the prior year. Wednesday along with every Friday we are to fast from meat products which is fine with me. I happen to love fish.

So the purpose of Lent is to prepare us for the death and then resurrection of Jesus, recalling the events linked to the Passion of Christ and ends in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Christians do this preparation through prayer (justice towards God), fasting (justice towards self), and almsgiving (justice towards neighbour).

There is a special significance in those 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (the 6 Sundays are not counted). Some say the 40 days represent the 40 days Moses spent on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18), the 40 days and nights Elijah spent walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), the 40 days God made it rain in the days of Noah (Genesis 7:4), the 40 years the Hebrew people spend wandering to the Promised Land (Numbers 14:33), the 40 days Jonah gave the city of Nineveh in which to repent (Jonah 3:4), the 40 days Jesus went into the desert and fasted (Matthew 4:1-2, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-2), and the 40 hours Jesus lay in the tomb.

I am usually a lot better with the preparations for Lent than I am with doing New Year's resolutions. Usually. Not this year. While pondering what I was going to do for fasting, I realized I can't give up drinking alcohol (I don't drink) or smoking (quit 11 years ago). I wanted and needed something with meaning. So I decided to give up swearing. Yeah, to me, swearing is 2nd nature. I thought piece of cake - when my kids were small I used to invent funny words instead of the swear words so while it was a big deal to remember, I thought it would be good preparation for grandchildren that are not dogs or sugar gliders if and when my kids ever decide to give me actual kids.

What I didn't remember when making this resolution was my inlaws. I lasted 8 hours (6 were spent sleeping) before I had my first lapse. This has become the hardest thing I have done. Each minute is a torture. Thank goodness, God is forgiving. I think he knows I mean well. I mean....look at the almsgiving - the doing onto others - that has to count, right? I take 10-30 phone calls from inlaws per day. So a few swear words shouldn't count. Maybe I should take up drinking although today was a free day and I only swore 3 times! It might take me the entire 40 days to be able to get through an entire day without swearing.