Friday Five: What Are You Doing for Lent?

Mother Laura at RevGalBlogPals says: Ready or not, Lent is upon us! [She then featured a Lenten song that's a favorite of hers, so I'm featuring one that's a favorite of mine here.]



1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?
Well, not so much, as I mentioned in the previous post Slush Wednesday. I am still getting used to this new life of having only two humans in the household, and belonging to a big church with different rituals and expectations (same denomination, but many differences just the same). Home rituals seem odd with only two people, and most of my relatives here either are not Christians or are in non-Lent-observing traditions. This is something I'll have to keep working on.

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?
Having lived in the North most of my days, I've never celebrated Mardi Gras in context.
I suppose my most memorable Lent was the one when Cordeliaknits was born on the Wednesday before Easter (which I later discovered was called Spy Wednesday in some old traditions). Oddly, her birthday will not fall on Easter Sunday until long after I'm gone, but it does generally tend to fall during Spring Break for whatever school she's in. This should be her last Spring Break unless she ends up in academic chaplaincy, so there's a change coming for her!
Several years ago in my old church, the minister instituted something new for Ash Wednesday. Members were invited to submit general or specific people and other concerns to be prayed for during an Ash Wednesday litany. These were the most meaningful Ash Wednesday services I have ever known as we prayed for ourselves and each other and for the whole world.

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?
Not really, as far as I can recall. We heard our Catholic friends talk about Lenten fasting, giving up things for Lent, and so on. We did celebrate Maundy Thursday in the church where I was confirmed (on that evening, in fact) but I don't recall much else. In the first church I joined as an adult, we had Wednesday night soup suppers with a service and perhaps some mission component during Lent, and I still think of Lent as a time to think of others.

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?
More in the take-on camp, trying to have a more disciplined spiritual life.

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?
Primarily by reading and reflecting on the readings in Bread and Wine, the book chosen by RevGalBlogPals. I'll also make use of some other resources that I have or find. Just today when looking up Spy Wednesday to make sure I hadn't made it up, I came upon the Geranium Farm site -- coincidentally one of the principals of that site is the author of tomorrow's reading in Bread and Wine. So I'll be visiting that as well. In my "actual" (as opposed to "virtual") church, we are doing a study on Islam involving some lunches with videos and reading a novel about a Muslim American, and that ties in with something I often like to do during Lent, which is to learn more about another country or culture. (Probably fits in with all those Lenten soup suppers).
And today is Friday, and I will be making Salmon Wiggle* for supper. The Canadian Food Guide (I like it better than our Pyramid) says to eat fish twice a week, so I'm going to try that.

* How do you make a Salmon Wiggle? Tickle it under the gills! But seriously, folks, just open a can of salmon and take the skin and obvious bones out, give the juice to the cat or dog, and mash it up (the fish, not the cat or dog). Then make a white sauce like your Home Ec teacher taught you (don't forget to put on your hairnet!), add the salmon and some frozen peas, and serve over some form of starch. Usually it's toast at my house, sometimes potatoes, but today I am going to cast caution to the winds and by golly, I'm going to learn to make baking powder biscuits, or in fact, Bakewell Cream biscuits.