Ash Wednesday
It's Ash Wednesday. The first day of Lent.
After several days of cold-induced misery, I am starting to feel a little better. Still coughing. Not as much sinus pain.
Nora Gallagher comes today.
When I woke up this morning I felt the itch to go running around in the blogs to see what people were saying about the Primates' communique. And then I remembered the Presiding Bishop's call for a season of fasting and I remembered that last night I had decided to fast from church blogs and their comments for Lent. It's not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with the open and even hostile debate going on all over the web, it's that I'm getting addicted to it. I'm reading blogs instead of homework. I alternate between rising blood pressure and deep sadness. I'm having arguments in my head with people I don't even know.
Ash Wednesday is a fast day in the Episcopal church. I am not physically up to a fast from food today, but I will start my fast from the information overload. I have decided to read two books during Lent, "Speaking of Sin" by Barbara Brown Taylor and "Common Prayer on Common Ground" by Alan Jones. Both authors are Episcopal priests for whom I have a lot of respect. I want to spend some time this Lent refocusing on what the Gospel says. It's easy to turn the issues into idols and to forget that Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, no matter how much we may disagree with them.
posted by Merely Human @ 10:03 AM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Why not give up coughing and colds for Lent instead?
You could also come over to my blog from time to time. Yesterday, for example, the other Doug (did you know I have another Doug in my life again? virtually, of course, the Muirs are mostly in Armenia, but in threads where we both comment, people sometimes get confused) talked about how the Eurovision Song Contest is putting an end to dreams of Greater Albania, something you wouldn't have expected from an event whose greatest achievement since launching ABBA's career was either advancing cross-dressing in Israel or introducing Ukrainians clad in short, mock-barbarian outfits to the wider world. Not much schismy-dipping on the blog though.
Good point, Lauren. Sigh.
Doug - I have visited at your blog from time to time, but unfortunately I don't know enough to follow much of it. I seem to have missed the comments on costuming, though.
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