All throughout the day yesterday, I thought of and looked at Valentine’s candy and wanted to eat it. I was starving by the time I got home from mass, and I couldn’t wait until morning so that I could eat. See, in the Catholic faith, Ash Wednesday is a day of FASTING AND ABSTINENCE. There are whole guidelines on fasting and abstaining. The idea is that you offer up the beginning of your suffering with a fast. Fasting is found all through the Bible. You are allowed two small meals, usually enough to sustain energy, and one regular size meal for the day. I also tried not to drink anything but my morning coffee and I had one glass of tea in the evening. I tell you, I was thirsty. You are not allowed to eat meat on Ash Wednesday or any Friday of Lent. This means that you have to be creative with fish, shrimp and clams, which are allowed, because fish is thought of as “clean” and Jesus fed the thousands with fish.
This morning I was starving when I woke up. I had my morning coffee, and I grabbed a breakfast bar on the way to the car. I was really looking forward to it because it had chocolate in it. Meghan ate it on the way to school, so I had to wait until lunch to eat. I was starving. Sonic was what I wanted, but I would have been forced to get the Vanilla Dr Pepper or the Cherry Coke. That would not have worked. My only real choices are Betty’s and Mc Donald’s. I went to Betty’s BBQ and ordered the chicken salad with tea.
I wasn’t really tempted to do much today, except listen to music. I found this one CD in the car that was Christmas music sung by what sounds like choirs of angels. I played it very softly while I ate my lunch and wrote for my blog. Whenever I did feel tempted today and yesterday, especially with the chocolate, I said a quick prayer, not organized, not beautiful, but it had the basic elements…Lord, Help Me , and Thank You. I even found myself offering up a moment of thanks for my job and my home as I was climbing into the car after a long day of license commissioning.
At home, the first thing I noticed was my husband’s Dr Pepper bottle standing next to the bed. I was so tempted to take a sip. I managed to avoid it. I walked into the living room, and there was the TV. Nothing like plopping down in front of our “movie screen”, as I like to call it, and watch some good shows, right? I managed to avoid that and move on to the kitchen. I helped Erin with her homework, fed the kids the best supper they ever had—tator tots, hot dogs, and applesauce—and spent the evening, what little was left of it, working on my Mt. St. Laundry Room that erupted in my kitchen…long story.
I call today a success. Tomorrow I plan to add some devotional time into my day. Maybe a rosary by the end of the night. The kids and I like to pray the Rosary at 830 with the sisters on EWTN. One thing I definitely plan on doing is starting the Gospel of Mark. Every Lent I like to read the book of Exodus, or at least the Exodus story, the book of Mark, and on Easter Week, the Gospel of John. I also enjoy watching The Ten Commandments with Charlton Hesston and The Prince of Egypt. One other I recommend during Lent is The Passion of Christ, but it is too graphic for the kids to watch…I’ll get into kids and the passion story later.
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