:: Lent & Giving Things Up, 1 ::

As of this Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009, we’re in the season that the church’s liturgical calendar calls Lent. As a personal note, Jess and I were at the Vatican on Ash Wednesday (the annual, official start of Lent - check out the awesome sun rays in the pic Jess took!), and it was the only Wednesday in February this year that the Pope did not make his weekly 10:30am address. Bummer. But St. Peter’s, the Vatican Museums, etc. were astonishing beyond words nonetheless!

Anyway, several of us grew up in traditional & liturgical traditions of “church,” where seasons like Lent were part of the norm; others have never heard of it before; still others are confused or apathetic to such historical liturgy; while a final group might have friends who participate (and even walked around on Wednesday with an ashen cross on their foreheads), and are curious. So over the next couple days, I’ll be posting a few thoughts on Lent: what it is and why people give things up (or add things, as the case may be). Tomorrow: what is Lent; Monday-Tuesday: why people do, and concurrently why people should NOT, give things up.