Another Lent is at our throats. At least that’s the way it feels. William F. Buckley is said to have answered someone who asked if he liked writing, “I like having written,” and that is my feeling about Lent. I like having done it.
I would commend to you the old practice of giving up something, which I wrote about a couple of years ago in Just Give It Up. The experience of your own worldliness is always, even after giving things up for decades, a bit of a shock, and a salutary one, and what small increase in self-discipline you acquire a good thing in itself.
For some reason, the comments on the article disappeared. Several were very helpful, too, but there were a few — to head them off here — who went on in that chipper post-Vatican II nun-in-stretchpants St. Louis Jesuits guitar mass Jimmy-Carter-grin accentuate the positive Mary Poppins kind of way, that Lent isn’t about giving up things but about opening ourselves to God, etc. I can’t remember the jargon, but I remember it was very trying.
So: Yes, okay, sure, go ahead, have a positive Lent. But the rest of us, self-indulgent hedonists that we are, need to start with an exercise that reminds us of who we are, and how far we fall short of our ideals, or even our usual self-appraisal, and how much we need the grace of God. As I say, Just Give It Up.
February 21st, 2012 | 8:02 am
Apologies if sounding too ‘positive’ , yet , do we need not focus that seen as a time of being with The Lord , who thus so want us to share the strenght against the enemy – then , the focus itself has changed ..and being able to do so , with millions all over .., who , sort of gladly take on the invitation of The Church , that even makes it simple , in what to give up – meat mostly , others , dairy and fish too ; true, any thing that seem to control us and yes , even the media and instead , taking up the advice from here , to read the scriptures , each book 20 times etc ,all occasions when we allow gladly , for the Holy Spirit , to take dominion , for the benefit of all .
Dear Husband and me, started reading few pages of the Diary of Divine mercy , together as part of evening prayers – highly recommend same , esp. to think that The Lord possibly allowed so many circumstances in that diary , seeing how one day , we would benefit from same , as much as St.Faustina may not have known so at the time , yet , happy for us now too , a saint to whom the Lord had said – ‘give graces to whomever you want , in whatever measure .’ !
The lent possibly helps us to be ready and yearning , to recieve same better !
Thus , we can prepare for the Great Feast of Mercy too – including Easter and the 8th day celebration , bringing all to His mercy , rejoicing how , most of His children and even our bodies too have been blessed to stay in His will on many occasions , that He will continue to bless us , even in those areas that we fail !
A very blessed Lenten Season to all !
February 21st, 2012 | 10:42 am
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February 21st, 2012 | 11:28 am
I’ll be giving up my beloved beer and burger king, along with coffee and internet.
Hopefully we can all catch a glimpse this Lent of how far the “joy of Zion” surpasses the “intoxication of Babylon”.
February 21st, 2012 | 12:51 pm
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February 21st, 2012 | 1:28 pm
I don’t know yet what I will be giving up. But as a convert, I find I really want to correct people who say that giving something up isn’t important. Around here, a lot of people say it’s just as okay to do something – volunteer for a good cause, say – and I find I want to reframe that as giving something up – giving up one’s personal time – except that it fails this, since you’re not giving up all your personal time.
But I keep feeling that giving something up matters – that it is a good practice, and ought to be recognized as a good practice, separate and distinct from the good practice of doing good works.
Because there is something in giving something up. It teaches us something that is important and good to know.
February 21st, 2012 | 3:08 pm
This Easter finds me in RCIA on my journey across the Tiber from the Greek Orthodox church (to which I was also a convert from a lukewarm Lutheranism). I understand the value of giving something up. For the past 10 years under Eastern Orthodoxy, I heard all about the value of fasting for forty days (though I was never a particularly good Orthodox Christian when it came to fasting). I am thinking about from what I shall fast during this my first Catholic Lent. Whatever I decide it will be, all y’all can be sure that I will not lord over others the fact that I’ve given up “X”. One thing I did absorb as an Eastern Orthodox Christrian is that one does not parade around town letting everyone know about one’s fast.
February 21st, 2012 | 7:01 pm
“…who went on in that chipper post-Vatican II nun-in-stretchpants St. Louis Jesuits guitar mass Jimmy-Carter-grin accentuate the positive Mary Poppins kind of way, that Lent isn’t about giving up things but about opening ourselves to God…”
Ouch. I’ll be sure to go on ebay and search for a metal cilice, preferably with a vintage feel (hipster!).
The hardest part of Lent for me is to sit still and bask in the engulfing silence wherein God can speak to the heart. Perhaps this year will be different, God willing.
February 21st, 2012 | 7:01 pm
I don’t give up facebook but try to post something about Lent or God everyday. Some of my friends ask questions and that opens up conversation about God :)
February 23rd, 2012 | 11:31 am
I love WFB, and have spent decades basking in the glow of his wit, but isn’t “I like having written” a Dorothy Parker line (it begins, “I hate writing…”).
In fact, I don’t recall WFB making much fuss over the difficulty of writing. I DO remember him extolling the virtues of his trusty Smith-Corona typewriter, and his early, evangelical enthusiasm for word processing, which left me with the impression that he had a craftsman’s appreciation for the brute physical act of hammering out copy.
Certainly I can imagine him using the Parker line (I’m saying it in my Buckley voice right now!)–as every writer eventually does. But it would be an appropriation, to which he’d undoubtedly give due credit in a formal setting. And really, he’s the originator of so many witticisms on his own.
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