{"id":2281,"date":"2018-02-18T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T00:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=2281"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:33:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:33:32","slug":"lent-not-doing-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/lent-not-doing-too-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent: Not Doing Too Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Quite a bit happened this week.<\/p>\n

We started Lent’s 40-day stay with our Lord in the desert. Not literally. That’s mentioned in today’s Gospel: Mark 1:12<\/a>–15<\/a>. I’ve talked about deserts and Deuteronomy, penance and porridge, before. (February 11, 2018<\/a>; February 26, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n

There’s a more technical \u2014 and more useful, probably \u2014 discussion in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 538<\/a>–540<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year’s Ash Wednesday was also St. Valentine’s Day. We’d been celebrating St. Valentine<\/a> of Rome for centuries before the High Middle Ages. That’s when he got associated with courtly love. His feast day has been February 14 ever since.<\/p>\n

St. Valentine of Rome’s portfolio includes engaged couples, beekeepers, happy marriages, love, plague and epilepsy. “Courtly love” is a can of worms I’ll leave for another day.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Starting Lent<\/h4>\n

<\/a>If I believed Lent was all about feeling far less than chipper, I’d be pretty impressed with myself.<\/p>\n

I’m not. Either chipper or impressed. The latter would make about as much sense as seeing health as a reward for holiness. (January 7, 2018<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I’m not quite sick, not enough to warrant medical attention. But I’m not well either.<\/p>\n

It’s frustrating, and kept me home on Ash Wednesday. My wife and #3 daughter did the same, for the same reason.<\/p>\n

My son, happily, is less under par, and brought home this year’s cross and necklace. I’m wearing both now. I haven’t timed it, but the ‘chaplet’ prayers are probably the shortest part of my Lenten ‘add-on’ routine.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Keeping it Simple<\/h4>\n

<\/a>What I’m doing for Lent is pretty minimal. Along with the chaplet, I read whatever’s on a Lent 2018 Calendar<\/a>. It’s from the USCCB.<\/p>\n

Each day there’s something from the Bible, a prayer, something written in the last two millennia. That sort of thing.<\/p>\n

There’s a printable<\/a> copy: six sheets\/pages. My copy is virtual: a *.pdf I filed under ‘devotionals.’ That lets me get at it easily, without expending paper and ink.<\/p>\n

I could waste time and effort, agonizing over my ‘keep it simple’ decision. But I won’t. This reading-and-prayer routine is something I can do. I figure doing what I can is more productive than fretting about what I can’t.<\/p>\n

It seems I’m not the only one who thinks being reasonable makes sense. “Don’t do too much” is the sixth of ten points on a ‘what to remember’ list:<\/p>\n