This was the last cup of coffe I have had since Fat Tuesday. On the one hand, it was a delicious cafe-au-lait from Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans avec beignets et beaucoup de sucre. On the other hand IT WAS THE LAST CUP OF COFFEE I'VE HAD SINCE FAT TUESDAY!It was a toss-up for me: coffee or wine. I went with coffee, thinking that would be the easier pleasure to do without. H was certain coffee was the greater sacrifice. Maybe next year I will go without wine for purposes of comparison.
This is the first time I have ever made a Lenten sacrifice. It was not really part of my Protestant upbringing, although increasing numbers of Protestants are dabbling in the Lenten Season (I got ashes as a Methodist). The first time I had ever heard of Lent or met a real live Catholic was when I was nine, and my family moved to New Orleans (Kenner to be more specific).
Until tonight, when I was checking the calendar to see how many more days to go, I was under the misbelief that Lent was 40 days. I was confused and slightly horrifed to count 45 days. After a little Google search, I learn that the 40 days don't include Sundays! Oy! Sundays, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, are little "mini-Easters," which explains why the hard-core Catholics (who go without meat all week) allow themselves to eat meat on Sundays. I figure though, if we are going to do this, we are going to do it right, so I'm going the distance, so no coffee, even on Sundays. Not even de-caf.
H has foregone sweets, which has been as difficult for two reasons: narrowing down what constitutes a "sweet," and doing without them. He has been fairly liberal in the "sweets" definition: candy, desserts of any kind, hot chocolate are all on the list; we agree that fruit and fruit-sweetened foods (like popsicles) are allowed.
We are also observing "no meat" on Fridays. The hardest part of this isn't not eating meat; it's remembering not to eat meat on Fridays. I was really embarrassed that I sent the girls to Catholic school the first Friday of Lent with chicken nuggets in their lunch boxes.
This past Friday (the 13th), after our basketball game, S really wanted to go to Huey's, a landmark Memphis hamburger restaurant. We went, and he got his World Famous Huey Burger, and the Catholic and Catholics-in-training had spinach dip, catfish baskets, cheese sticks, and French fries.
27 more days and counting! Just curious...what did y'all give up for Lent, and how's it going?
1 comment:
you, my dear, are a brave soul to forego coffee for that long! my family begged me not to do it. it would be a true sacrifice for me, but they were afraid of my miserableness if i did it. & in the spirit of not inflictin penances on others, i kept the coffee & gave up chocolate in all forms plus no internet before 5pm each day. needless to say, this lent has been a very enlightening time for me!
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