I don't give up foods for Lent. A while back, having become interested in finding recipes from the too little known Ruthenian Catholic Rite tradition, I got onto a Greek Orthodox source that talked about the stingency of the most severe form of Orthodox fasting for Lent, that for monastics and found to my amusement that other than that I use about a tablespoon of olive oil a day for the nutrients in it, I pretty much practice that year round now that I've become a vegan. I exceeded the lesser levels of it as a plan vegetarian most days of the year.
I could give up chocolate, which would be easier. I am one of the few people in the world, it seems, who isn't that fond of chocolate. I had a great aunt who used to give up candy for Lent but she ate fudge freely declaring that fudge wasn't candy. Eating it would be more of a penitential act for me, on the same level as eating Circus Peanuts, something that vegetarianism took care of going on sixty years ago.
I have tried to give up vices, it's easier to give those up especially as the list of those you can indulge in grows less, though the ones still there are held onto more dearly so that might work. The hardest one to give up is sarcasm in response to stupid stuff people throw at me.
I refuse to believe coffee is a vice.
I would give up coffee if I wanted to be cranky and irritable for 40 days. I don’t see the spiritual discipline in that and the penance would be done by those who have to put up with me.
ReplyDeleteMy father tried it one Lent, my mother forbade him and me to ever try anything like that again. I figure I should honor my mother. Maybe I should have tried it during Covid when I didn't see anyone, much, but I didn't think of that last year and Lent already started this year.
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