Ash Wednesday

It's Ash Wednesday, time to begin Lenten sacrifices.  I am considering several sacrifices but I've decided that fasting from and abstaining from social networking web sites is a good start.  I'll resume blogging after Easter Sunday.  May your Lenten Sacrifices be fruitful in your spiritual life.  God Bless you.

What are you doing for Lent?

Lent is a time of doing Pennance and sacrificing to move towards the Spiritual realm away from the worldly realm.  What are you doing for Pennance and sacrifice?  Things that I am considering:

• Give up fast food
• Give up snacking between meals
• Give up dessert
• Give up candy
• Give up social networking web sites
• Partaking of the Sacrament of Recocilliation more often

I have less than 36 hours to decide...

Lunch tomorrow is at an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet.

Mike

What are you doing for Mardis Gras?

Mardis Gras is french for "Fat Tuesday" meaning the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday and is the start of Lent.  On Ash Wednesday we are reminded of the mortality of our earthly bodies - our bodies will eventually return to the earth from whence they came.  Our Souls are another matter.  At the end of our earthly existence we are moving to a new home for eternity, Heaven (possibly by way of Purgatory) or Hell.  And so Ash Wednesday begins a season of preparation for celebrating Easter - the Resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  We spend this time of Lent doing Pennance for our sins.  Most of us execute that Pennance by fasting from a worldly pleasure.  As a kid it was always candy.  As an adult it has been coffee, snacks, dessert, candy, fast food, beer, and other things.  I think that it is human nature that if we know that we are going to fast from something for 7 1/2 weeks we want to indulge in it one last time.  That indulgence is the celbration of Mardis Gras.

Mardis Gras is not a time to commit sins of the flesh.  It is a time to partake and enjoy one last time (and for most of us it seems, to excess) our pleasure that we will be fasting and abstaining from for the next 7 1/2 weeks.

So, what are your plans for Mardis Gras?

The sky is falling

OK, maybe the sky isn't falling but it sure is getting crowded up there and more dangerous.  The WSJ posted an article about a collision between a commercial commsat and a defunct Russian military bird.  It's just a wee bit bothersome and I hope that our military is doing more to protect our own birds.