Lent

Embering
What to do with this grief over what happened to you? I don’t know, so I’m making a ritual.

The Praying Habit: Jewish Week!
I think I chose to attempt Jewish prayer my last week of this project because I subconsciously hoped it would be the most spiritually rewarding. I should have known better. I’ve found that anticipating or hoping for spiritual fireworks leads to the exact opposite: boredom and sometimes even frustration. So why did I have these…

The Praying Habit: Catholic Week
This was the week I was most looking forward to doing when I made this Lent commitment. Catholicism has been an ongoing presence in my life despite not being raised in the faith myself. Many of my friends and classmates growing up were Catholic—I was extremely jealous of their beautiful First Communion dresses (I got…

O Lord, Give Me
Found myself uttering a prayer the other day — inspired by Carolyn Browender’s Lenten prayer initiative no doubt! O Lord, give me the strength to lift a thousand million Pintos * In the aural traditions of my people, there exists a tale of a mother who singlehandedly hoisted a flaming Ford Pinto off of her…

The Very Tan Lint Van
What is Lint all about? It’s hard to explain, but this photo (taken on the Second Sunday of Lint) might provide some illumination. I photographed this van because it was a very tan van. When I looked at the photo later, I realized the van was a portal to other (possibly simultaneous) realities. There appears…

The Praying Habit: Week 1
Well, this is embarrassing. I forgot to pray on Ash Wednesday. I went to mass with two coworkers (the cathedral near our office had a service at a more convenient time than any of the Protestant churches near me), but completely forgot to offer personal prayers once I got home. I realized my mistake as…

The Praying Habit: Lent
I have a spotty relationship with Lenten disciplines. The season was commemorated at the Lutheran church I grew up attending with Wednesday soup dinners and Tenebrae services following them in addition to the regular Sunday church services, the sanctuary decorated in the liturgically appropriate purple. I recall some of my Sunday school classmates giving something…

Lint-O-Gram
Lint is a time when we celebrate the generative power of our twin suns and Great Crater, from whence all water flows. It’s a fun time to take pictures, draw and listen to music. Here’s a photo I recently took in a church kitchen. Thanking people for not doing things they aren’t doing: that’s the…

Lint SOTD
Before Rick Springfield publicly coveted his friend Jessie’s girl, he turned his attention upward. To the sky, but he wasn’t talking to the air. He was talking to the Lord. Then the world looked better! Speak to the Sky is a Linten classic — enjoy! His gentle God-rock reaches through time and space

Fuzz Wednesday!
Did you know? Today marks the first day of Lint, an alternate-reality version of Lent. Fuzz Wednesday marks the yearly spring shedding of cats’ winter coats onto our coats. I’m combing my kitty Timmy now so I’m ready for tomorrow. We villagers will deposit our cat fuzz in the Sacred Pewter Urn. Then we will…

Lenten Bingeing…For Good
People have been bingeing on TV shows, apparently, according to many boring recent articles. “Who cares?” I think, when confronted with boring prose about boring activities. “They’re just watching TV.” However, a few days ago, I found myself “bingeing” on something (during Lent!): I stayed up well past Quaker Midnight reading issues of Treasure Chest…

The Lent Bin
I’ve barely got my Christmas decorations put away and was pondering hearts and snowflakes for St. Valentine’s Day when I realized that Lent begins February 13th this year. February. 13. I mentioned this to a Sister in Christ and she said she had already gotten out her “bin of Lent stuff.” “I gotta get mine…

Lenten Thrills: 1974
Did you know that during Holy Week in 1974, an Australian nun had a top ten hit in the United States with a recording of the Lord’s Prayer? I didn’t either! Happy Lent to me! I made my non-believer husband watch the video with me on YouTube. Our comments are included with screenshots below. …