Today is the day before Lent begins, Mardi Gras, and it's also Shrove Tuesday. It's the day before Ash Wednesday, the day before Lent begins. Mardi Gras and Carnival, holidays that come to us out of predominantly Catholic countries, certainly have a more festive air than Shrove Tuesday, which comes to us from some of the more dour traditions of England. The word shrove, which is the past tense of the verb to shrive, which means to seek absolution for sins through confession and penance, is far less festive than the Catholic terms for this day.
Will this be the year that we go back to having pancake suppers on the day before Ash Wednesday? Or did we give up on those long ago, even before the pandemic made it unsafe to gather in groups? Most of the churches that I've attended wouldn't expect that people would come to church on both Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, no matter how delicious the pancakes or how meaningful the evening service.
Some of us will spend today thinking about whether or not we want to adopt a special Lenten discipline. Some of us will give up something for Lent: chocolate or gossip or sugar or caffeine or social media. But there are different approaches to Lent that make for a more meaningful season.
There are many ways of being useful. We can donate time. We can donate money. We can resolve to go about in the world with cheerful faces.
Or maybe we've been so useful that we're burnt to a crisp. Maybe this is the Lent that we want to add something; traditionally we would add more devotion time, more prayer. Maybe this is the year we want to add some deep self-care: a spa day a week, a massage, a retreat.
Or maybe this is the Lent where we finally believe that we are enough: we don't have to do more, to be more, to give up more. God loves us, just as we are right now.
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