a season has begun

A season of sacrifice and preparation. Any guessers? If you guessed "Lent", you'd be right. DING DING DING! We have our winner! I, like other Catholics and many other people from other denominations, will be giving up some things and promising to do others. Here's my list. Cheers. :)

~ I'm going to make a point to be better about posting. At least one a week. No excuses beyond running a fever over 100 for the entire week. Or puking my guts out the entire week. You get the idea. This is to a) give me a level of accountability, and b) get me back in the groove. Christmas break threw me off schedule.

~ No sweets! This is something that I've done now for...I think four years. It's really a very good sacrifice, because I LOVE chocolate.

~ No soda either. Since I've started school, I drink soda more often than I used to. It's not a ridiculous amount, but all the same, I'll do without it. I don't need carbonation; now is the time to show it!

~ Also eating-related, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to eat better. I don't eat enough nor with enough frequency - normally I'll have something around 9:30 AM and then nothing until dinner, which is typically at 6:00 PM. However, sometimes I don't get home till 7:15 or 7:30. I really need to eat a little bit more often.

~Exercise. I'm going to walk more, and I'm going to try to swim at least every other week. Based on my old shoulder problems, and some recurring issues with them, it isn't the best idea for me to swim a lot. However, a little bit will do me good and not cause issues. (I think.)

~Spiritual discipline. I admit that while most of the time my prayer life is middlingly ok, I have no structure. Ever. I don't say, "I'll read the Bible at least once a week" or "I'm going to pray a Rosary every day" or anything like that. It's normally spontaneous little prayers. Nothing wrong with that, but that makes it easy to accidentally skip a day. I have a little book of Lenten reflections that I'm going to use each day as a start to really making time for God each day - that doesn't count little quick 15 second prayers.

~ No meat on Fridays. Guess what. I ALREADY DO THIS. However, this is the only time of year that the Catholic Church states that individuals over the age of 14 who do not have a medical condition preventing them from following this are obliged to abstain from meat on Fridays - the day of Christ's death - with no exceptions to the rule. (During the rest of the year, if there is absolutely no other option, abstinence of meat may be replaced by a SUITABLE sacrifice. For more information on abstinence, see this article.)

~ Fasting. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (Friday before Easter) are declared days of fasting by the Church. Individuals 18 years of age through 59 years of age are required to fast. Basically, this means only one SMALL "regular" meal a day, and two smaller meals that, if the amount of food is added together, do not total the amount of food eaten at the regular meal. More information on requirements of fasting and medical conditions exempt can be found here.

Good luck with YOUR Lenten resolutions!

-enna