Palms Transfigured Into Ashes

February 13, 2013 By 116 Comments
PALM CROSSES

Today's the day that everyone lists what they gave up for Lent (I'm taking on time for lectio divina and giving up going to bed after 1am), but , for me, the more moving sacrifice happened this weekend, on the last Sunday in Ordinary Time. I changed my mind about Christianity the night before Palm Sunday last year, so I've never experienced Ash Wednesday as a believer before.  The first Mass I went to as a Christian was the jubilant Palm Sunday, the welcoming of Christ into Jerusalem and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Spiritual Practice Tagged With: , 116 Comments

So how did that Lent stuff work out?

April 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

Before Lent began, I committed to two behavior changes: one to curb a vice, the other to cultivate a virtue.  In brief: I stopped taking advantage of the free food opportunities near my office in the hopes that I could stop feeling like I was taking advantage of people and feeling pleasure in pride in getting one over on someone I tried to overhaul the way I donated to charity in order to be more responsive to the people around me, instead just kicking in sporadically to malaria nets. (I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Morality in Practice Tagged With: , 1 Comment

No ‘Healthy Outlet’ for Bad Habits

February 24, 2012 By 8 Comments

Remember you can vote once per day for the About.com Atheism Awards.  I'm one of five nominees for Best Atheist Blog.  More details here. This is part two of my response to Brian S. about my choice to give up free food during Lent.  The first focused on why I glommed on to Lent in the first place.  Now we're addressing the substance of the change I'm trying to make.  Brian wrote: I disagree [that the feeling of having cheated someone is a bad pleasure to cultivate], or at any rate … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Morality in Practice Tagged With: , , , , , , , 8 Comments