Shrove Tuesday - Shovel it in Tuesday? Fat Tuesday? What the.....

Lent is a time to renew wherever we are in that process that I call the divine therapy. It's a time to look what our instinctual needs are, look at what the dynamics of our unconscious are.

Thomas Keating

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Shrove Tuesday

Fat Tuesday

a time to party

to take to the streets in New Orleans

or

if you are from less adventuresome climes

eat pancakes

a lot of them

why do we feel the need to stuff our souls

in preparation for Lent

I have never thought waddling into Lent with a

“fat soul” made much sense

It is not as though Lent is a time of “winter”

of spiritual hibernation

where we shut down for 40 days

go to sleep

Lent is more like a 40 step program

A series of days

where we do what we should be doing all along

exercising our spiritual “self”

so that it may “rise”

it all points to that great spiritual truth

Christ is risen

We are risen

Risen to?

life

life not so much after life

but life within life

the true

miracle

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Sharing below some wonderful ideas for “Lent” from Nadia Bolz Weber

40 ideas for keeping a holy Lent
www.houseforall.org
Day 1: Pray for your enemies
Day 2: Walk, carpool, bike or bus it.
Day 3: Don’t turn on the car radio
Day 4: Give $20 to a non-profit of your choosing
(Sunday)
Day 5: Take 5 minutes of silence at noon
Day 6: Look out the window until you find something of beauty you had not noticed before
Day 7: Give 5 items of clothing to Goodwill
Day 8: No bitching day
Day 9: Do someone else’s chore
Day 10: Buy a few $5 fast food gift cards to give to homeless people you encounter
(Sunday)
Day 11: Call an old friend
Day 12: Pray the Paper (pray for people and situations in today’s news)
Day 13: Read Psalm 139 http://bible.oremus.org
Day 14: Pay a few sincere compliments
Day 15: Bring your own mug
Day 16: Educate yourself about human trafficking www.praxus.org
(Sunday)
Day 17: Forgive someone
Day 18: Internet diet
Day 19: Change one light in your house to a compact florescent
Day 20: Check out morning and evening prayer at http://dailyoffice.wordpress.com
Day 21: Ask for help
Day 22: Tell someone what you are grateful for
(Sunday)
Day 23: Introduce yourself to a neighbor
Day 24: Read Psalm 121 http://bible.oremus.org
Day 25: Bake a cake
Day 26: No shopping day
Day 27: Light a virtual candle http://rejesus.co.uk/spirituality/post_prayer/
Day 28: Light an actual candle
(Sunday)
Day 29: Write a thank you note to your favorite teacher
Day 30: Invest in canvas shopping bags
Day 31: Use Freecycle www.freecycle.org
Day 32: Donate art supplies to your local elementary school
Day 33: Read John 8:1-11 http://bible.oremus.org
Day 34: Worship at a friend’s mosque, synogogue or church and look for the beauty
(Sunday)
Day 35: Confess a secret
Day 36: No sugar day – where else is there sweetness in your life?
Day 37: Give $20 to a local non-profit
Day 38: Educate yourself about a saint www.catholic.org/saints
Day 39: Pray for peace
Day 40: Pray for your enemies (you probably have new ones by now) then decide which of these exercises you’ll keep for good