{"id":8959,"date":"2024-02-02T18:55:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T23:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=8959"},"modified":"2024-02-22T19:14:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T00:14:37","slug":"365281-planning-for-lent-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365281-planning-for-lent-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#281: Planning for Lent 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As observant Christians have no doubt noticed, this year Valentine\u2019s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same day, Feb. 14. So, do we celebrate love, or do we sacrifice? Is there some way that these two \u201choly\u201d days are connected?\u00a0 Personally, I plan to celebrate my love for my husband on Valentine\u2019s Eve which of course is also Mardi Gras \u2013 a traditional day of fun and feasting. But beyond playing games with the calendar, I think a good case can be made that when we sacrifice our time and possessions for the good of others, it\u2019s a genuine form of love.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So\u2026back to Lent. As Lent approaches each year, my mind typically starts exploring What should I do for Lent this<\/strong> year?<\/em> Sure, I generally fast from sweets and try to eat no meat which reminds me of people for whom being hungry is not a choice. It\u2019s a gesture of solidarity with the poor and a humbling spiritual awareness. BUT, I still feel the desire to sacrifice beyond eating. So far I\u2019ve narrowed this down to 3 possibilities:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \"\"<\/a>A Plastic Free Lent<\/strong> \u2013 In this scenario I would \u201cfast\u201d from buying anything made of<\/strong> OR<\/strong> packaged in <\/strong>plastic. Since my husband does the primary grocery shopping, it might be cheating to just let him buy the food that\u2019s packaged in plastic so I don’t have to count it. Also, it doesn\u2019t seem fair to impose my commitment on him. In addition, the packaging I typically get comes unbidden \u2013 like something I order on-line and didn\u2019t realize it would be packaged in plastic.<\/li>\n
  2. \"\"<\/a>One-A-Day Give-Aways<\/strong> \u2013 Although I\u2019ve done this in some past Lents, I\u2019m embarrassed to look around our home and notice that there are clothes that I haven\u2019t worn in over a year, books that I\u2019ll never read again – even for reference, toys I\u2019ve been saving for out of town grandchildren, and sports equipment that I\u2019ve aged out of. It\u2019s all well organized but could others use my extras?<\/li>\n
  3. Clearing Clutter<\/strong> \u2013 Related to the Give-Aways is stuff that nobody else can use like travel mementos that fill 4 bookcases, file cabinets filled with probably obsolete papers, plus my desk that has too many loose papers reminding me of things to do that are waiting to be done.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a>I\u2019m not sure which of the above I should do. Could I do all of them? Should I try? If you were faced with the above choices what would you<\/em> do?<\/p>\n

    Or even better \u2013 what kind of Lenten sacrifices are you considering? Go ahead and put your ideas in the comment section. It might lead me and others to expand our ideas of how Lent can deepen our spiritual life and help us to love our neighbors more fully.<\/p>\n

    PS: For those who care, Bottled Water Contains More Plastic Particles Than Previously Thought<\/em><\/a><\/span>.(Bloomberg, Jan. 2024)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As observant Christians have no doubt noticed, this year Valentine\u2019s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same day, Feb. 14. So, do we celebrate love, or do we sacrifice? Is there some way that these two \u201choly\u201d days are connected?\u00a0 Personally, I plan to celebrate my love for my husband on Valentine\u2019s Eve which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-days-365"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8959"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8978,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959\/revisions\/8978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}