It’s an odd combination, snow on the ground and Easter candy in the stores, and Lent is upon us Ash Wednesday was Feb. 18, when we begin by repenting and receiving our ashes.
We contemplate ‘what shall we give up for Lent’. Since I was a child I thought of it as a second chance if my New Year’s resolutions had already failed.
Last Tuesday Anglican, Calvinist, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic, and some Anabaptist and Evangelical Christians prepared to enter into the 40 day liturgical Lenten season (a time of prayer, repentance, almsgiving, and self-denial) sometimes preceded by a time of gluttony and partying.
Commonly known as Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, one or several days of celebration, on Feb. 17 we delight in pancakes; PA Dutch Fasnacht; purple, gold, and green beads; king cakes with the little hidden baby inside, and all manner of revelry. As for me, I was delighted when I visited the pharmacy to once again get a new supply of cough medicine, cough drops, Kleenex and other flu and cold medicines. This year the common cold was anything but common and the flu was relentless.
Then I spied them, blue marshmallow peeps, my favorite Easter candy, were lined up with rows and rows of chocolate bunnies, baskets of candies, spring flowers and the usual Easter fare. Well, I thought to myself, it is Fat Tuesday and a box of peeps, well nobody can eat just one. With that the peeps found themselves in the cart along with cold medicine waiting to be my Fat Tuesday treat.
Coming home I flipped on the TV. I was soon to hear more horror of Christian martyrs, Egyptian people being burned alive just because they are Christians. It took me back to the real reason of Lent when Jesus Christ had spent 40 days in the desert tempted by the Devil.
Now the empty box of the blue peeps looked somewhat shallow. The images on the TV were broadcasting stories of barbarism. Now the TV was saying ISIS was letting the world know that Rome was next and Pope Francis appeared declaring Christian martyrdom.
It truly is a time for prayer, penance and almsgiving. In 40 days we will enter into Holy Week, the passion and the resurrection of Christ. Will you be attending the Stations of the Cross each week to relive the events that changed the way we measure time from B.C. to A.D and The Christian Church was established on earth? My cousin Kyle, who is studying abroad, just emailed me a photo of St. Stephen the first Christian Martyr from Vienna. How serendipitous.
Well, how has your first week of Lent gone? Have you been following this insane brutality? Can you reflect and tell the readers, is this a special time for you as a Christian? Email me your thoughts to share with Tri County Record readers on our own holy ground. Email to quaintancecarol@gmail.com.
Carol Quaintance is a correspondent for Tri County Record.