Friday after Ash Wednesday
Fasting has become rather fashionable these days; all sorts of health advocates are speaking to the merits of refraining from food for various amounts of time. Fasting has always existed as a Catholic practice and Catholics of a certain age would remember that eating meat on any Friday put one’s eternal soul at risk. In the early modern period, Catholics were derogatorily referred to as “fish eaters” because of their abstinence from meat during the season of lent. Now, ordering a nice T bone medium rare at a restaurant places you in the realm of social outcasts once reserved for lepers. Speaking about Catholic practices that are making a revival, educational journals have commented on how public schools are insisting on school uniforms and the learning of Latin. It seems, after much committee work and research, that educators have discovered that Latin helps students understand grammar, sentence construction, and builds their vocabulary. Some aspects of Catholic practice, once the object of scorn, now are considered avant guarde and downright trendy. Considering this renaissance of traditional practices, Lent may be a time to pull a few more items from the attic that were once the main stays of Catholic practice such as rosaries, short visits to the Blessed Sacrament and devotional prayers such as the Morning offering. The Morning offering is a short prayer that focuses the efforts of what is often a busy and hectic day. Saying the Morning offering may be one of those things that could be done during Lent and it just may stay with you for the rest of the year. For information on the Morning offering, and the Pope’s Prayer Network (previously referred to as the Apostleship of Prayer) you can consult the following link: https://popesprayerusa.net/morning-offering/