Ash Wednesday

(photo courtesy markdroberts.com)

The season of Lent begins today.

It came so early this year that I am totally unprepared for it. I was able to put together a pancake dinner last night for my family. Last year, we made doughnuts and I KNOW everybody wanted to make doughnuts again. Everybody but me, that is. I splurged yesterday on a big box of the most expensive name-brand pancake mix I could find in the store. We made huge stacks of pancakes and sausage for supper. It wasn't a homemade doughnut feast, but I think everybody walked away satisfied.

Why pancakes the day before Lent?
Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras or fetter Dienstag) is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Since Lent is a time of abstinence, traditionally of meat, fat, eggs and dairy products (one wonders what was left) Shrove Tuesday's menu was designed to use up all the fat, eggs and dairy products left in the kitchen and storeroom. It is also a 'feast' to prepare for the time of 'famine' in the desert.
(Source: domesticchurch.com)

I wake up today, Ash Wednesday, Lent is upon us.

Lent is the 40 day period of fasting, penitence, and sorrow, leading up to the feast of Easter, recalling Jesus' 40-day fast in the wilderness. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, usually in February. These Lent prayers reflect the themes of fasting, penitence, and sorrow. (Source:churchyear.net)

Fast. Pray. Give.

prayer for Ash Wednesday:
Heavenly Father, Let us enter the season of Lent in the spirit of joy giving ourselves to spiritual strife, cleansing our soul and body, controlling our passions, as we limit our food, living on the virtues of the Holy Spirit;

Let us persevere in our longing for Christ so as to be worthy to behold His most solemn Passion and the most holy Passover, rejoicing the while with spiritual joy. Amen