Lent 2009

It's Ash Wednesday today, the beginning of Lent. We now have forty days of joy and repentance to prepare for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I think this may be my favorite Church season. (Not that it has much competition. I can only recall three others at the moment.) I feel as though this is a time when my Catholic faith finally begins to make demands of me and intrudes on my daily life, makes itself known. There is fasting. Stations of the Cross become a weekly event. There are a pile of Holy Days which require trips to church beside Sunday morning. Receiving the cross of ashes on your forehead today is a significant marker of faith. There is a sense of urgency about my religious practices. This is a time to really claim my faith.

For my fast this year I've opted not for self-denial but a new practice. I'm going for daily prayer. I've been interested in it for a while and have even tried to make it a habit, but those, obviously, haven't panned out well. I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, though. The general plan for now is a few minutes of prayer after waking up and a few minutes before going to bed. Maybe some stock "Our Fathers" and "Haily Marys." Maybe some original stuff in the sense that prayer is a conversation with God. I might go online and check out different methods of prayer, too. Try a different style every week. Some Taizé, maybe? We'll see. I'm excited to see how this turns out and will make every effort to record my experiences and practices here.