What We Did During Lent: “Lasting Values”
I come from a large and very Catholic family, and growing up I felt my parents were “too religious;” during lent; this feeling was especially common for all the children in our family. We were allowed meat only once a day and not at all on Wednesdays and Fridays during the week. We went to Benediction every Sunday afternoon and “confession” (Reconciliation) every Saturday. We were expected to give up candy and all sweets, including desserts (which my mother followed completely, including family birthdays.) And perhaps most difficult of all for us, we had to be home for dinner together, and then pray the rosary every evening after dinner, while kneeling in the living room of our home (no phone calls, no talking, no squirming, no restlessness or discomfort being evident.) While we chaffed at these “rules,” I now see the lasting values of these things, especially the value of self-discipline that we learned; greater than that, however, came the love of God.
JL
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What We Did During Lent
We invite you to share in the bulletin special Lent practices of your family now or in the past. We are parishioners of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. We can be inspired by each other. Limit is about 200 words. Give or email to Fr. Jeremy your Lenten stories. frjeremyh@gmail.com
Fr. Jeremy