Fasting Fridays 1

I am stealing these ideas from Deacon Nick Senger and will put them in this space piecemeal each Friday during Lent with my own comments in boldface. I will try to do some of this stuff, but there’s no way one person can do it all.  If something grabs you, give it a whirl.

1. 1. Give up candy/sweets. I’ll try.  But I reserve Sundays for cookies and I will use stuff like Crystal lite for drinks.
   2. Give up television time. Nope.  That’s when I get to cuddle my sweetie.
   3. Give up eating snacks between meals. Not really a fast thing for me since I don’t snack between meals anyway. But I do tend to have late night snacks so maybe I’ll give that a whack.
   4. Give up or limit soda or coffee. Neither are a thing for me.
   5. Give up or limit video games. Not a thing for me.
   6. Spend more time with family. Okay. But this seems like an odd choice for a fasting list.
   7. Give to the poor. We’ll be exploring this more on Mondays.
   8. Do an extra chore each day. Today, my chore is posting stuff on Patheos.
   9. Perform a random act of kindness.

Okay. Here is Oscar Peterson playing one of my favorite tunes, the ‘Gravy Waltz’ by none other than Steve Allen (who people my age can remember)

1. Pray a book of scripture using lectio divina. Not enough time for this.
2. Attend Mass on a weekday (every day if possible). I do when I  can.
3. Pray the rosary each day, alone or with your family. Not daily, but most days.
4. Prayerfully read Abandonment to Divine Providence. No time.
5. Make a special prayer notebook and list all the people in your life who need prayers; pray for them each day. Add someone new every day. No time.
6. Learn to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. I content myself with the Magnificat morning or evening prayers when I get the chance.
7. Make a commitment to attend Eucharistic Adoration regularly. I do when I can, which is not as often as I should.
8. Commit to examining your conscience each evening. Bad advice for somebody with scruples.
9. Pray the Jesus Prayer throughout the day. I like this prayer, but throughout the day makes me numb to it, not more sensitive to it.
10. Pray the Angelus each day at noon. Pass. The Rosary is sufficient.  Then I’ve got stuff to do.

Feel free to add your own fast ideas.

By the way, since this Fasting Friday falls in the Ides of March, may I recommend that you take a little self-improvement time to watch Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and look for the Bard’s Catholic imagination and worldview at work as he considers this story of a thoroughly pagan power struggle. I leave you with Brutus’ self-defense, the speech that never gets anywhere near the air time that Marc Antony’s manipulative ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ speech gets: