What did you give up for Lent?

Our daughter drove down from Nashville last week with two of our grandchildren. My wife rode with her and is visiting up there this week. That’s why I wound up going alone to the 6 p.m. mass at LSU’s Christ the King Catholic Center to get my ashes. I can report that the church was packed with beautiful young girls and boys as Lent began on Ash Wednesday. Each was reminded that they came from dust and that “to dust you will return” as one of the priests or attendants anointed our foreheads with a black cross made from the ashes of palms blessed at last year’s Palm Sunday service and then burned in time to mark the start of Lent.

There was a young couple seated across from me who held hands throughout the service. They could have been Susan and me 45 years ago. We still hold hands in church. That boy must think she is pretty special because when they called the Catechumens forward to leave and continue their religious study during the remainder of the mass, he popped up and went with them.

Next in my Lenten routine for the past dozen years or so is my annual visit to Manresa which is the beautiful silent retreat center in Convent, Louisiana on the east bank of the Mississippi about half way to New Orleans from Baton Rouge. There I will join a group of approximately 112 men for three days of silence as we sit and listen to the Jesuits talk about God. In the group will be Jews from New York, Methodists from Houston, a few Episcopalians and Baptists from Pittsburgh and Atlanta and a bunch of Catholics from New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Crowley.

St. Mary's Hall

Manresa Retreat Center

One very memorable year I forgot to bring a jacket. A late season cold front moved in, and I nearly froze to death walking in silence as we moved from building to building for masses and meals.

My goal this year is to get my son and one of my sons-in-law to accompany me to Manresa. I know if I can just get them to go once, they will repeat just as I have. And then it should be easy to get the other two men in my family to join us. Those two won’t come to Manresa for me, but I know that if I can get the first two to do it the second two will listen to them and fall right in line. It is such a beautiful place in the spring and three days of silence takes you out of the world as nothing else can, and it makes what the Jesuits have to say much more important. Plus the food is fantastic!

I haven’t given up anything for Lent since I was a teenager. Of course, it is supposed to be a time for atonement and sacrifice, but I never really see it that way. For me Lent is a time for reflection and renewal as we head for Easter and the Christian celebration of our release from the burden of sin. I mean, once you know of the fabulous gift that is coming in just a few weeks how can you be sad?

When I was growing up we could not go to the movies on Friday night during Lent. That right there was enough to turn me into an atheist. Didn’t the church know there were serials we were following and that we were missing episodes?

Maybe it would help me to join the young man and the group of Catechumens I saw in church Wednesday night so they can teach me a little more religion and so I can be better prepared for next year.