40 Days

The ashes for Ash Wednesday
are from last year's  Palm Sunday

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent for Catholics and certain other Christian denominations. Traditionally, people will offer prayer, fasting, and works of love during this season leading up to Easter. Most people identify this as "what I'm giving up for Lent." The idea, though, is that the money you theoretically save from not buying the stuff you're giving up (including meat on Fridays) will be donated to the poor. And your acts of love and service will take the place of time you would be wasting with something inane or self-satisfying...like Facebook, for instance.

I did consider the idea of giving up coffee, but then I figured Facebook was more insidious than coffee, and therefore harder to abstain from. I only drink two cups of coffee per day (okay, maybe three), whereas Facebook calls to me every moment I'm awake. Interestingly, since making this decision, my intake of coffee seems to have diminished on its own.

Yay, Lent! 

The month of March has already proven to be busy busy with my birthday celebrations over the weekend, and a visit from my former roommate, Sarah, who arrives tomorrow for a few days. 

Two weekends from now, I'll be attending the Religious Education Congress in Anaheim (thanks to the high school I work for). I am blessed to have gotten into both of Fr. James Martin's sessions, as well as Fr. Ronald Rolheiser's session, "Attuning Ourselves to the Fire, the Heartbeat of Christ: Exploring a Rich Mystical Image." I'll be sure to blog about my experiences after the conference.

The weekend after that, I will visit with the San Diego Carmel, where I am discerning my vocation. I am now "canonically free," meaning that my marriage has been annulled. I continue to pray and work and hope in the Lord that my educational debt can be dealt with so that I may enter, if they should have me. 

Throughout the Lenten season, I'll try to post here regularly. Working six days a week doesn't leave a lot of time for blogging, but now that I'll be off of Facebook for several weeks, it should be easier. I'll make it part of my Lenten practice.

Stay tuned for my critique of the "Son of God" movie that came out last weekend. I swear, I've never spent so much time writing a film review before in my life. It's important, because so many people are either seeing this film or reading about it, and the truth is that... well, you'll just have read my review later this week.