Today is Shrove Tuesday, folks, which means it’s time to get shriven and party like Lent starts tomorrow. Which it does. As for me and my house, we’re having a pile of people over for pancakes, whipped cream, ice cream, cake, maple syrup, and rum. There will be much gorging of palates, and maybe, just maybe, fleeting display of female bosoms. Maybe.
In the meantime, the good folks at Aggie Catholics have put together a massive all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-Lent post, and it makes for edifying reading. If you haven’t yet decided how you will observe the season, this may give you some good ideas.
February 24, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Goodness, Craig, that sounds positively decadent. I’m just trying to be bad by playing on the internet, but it’s being quite dull.
AMDG, Janet
February 24, 2009 at 3:48 pm
How shameless! You’d best shape up, my dear.
February 24, 2009 at 6:17 pm
And I’m stuck giving a lecture on the problem human agency poses to scientific models of society and supervising a midterm. Somehow I don’t think any amount of rum is going to make that one interesting.
February 24, 2009 at 6:38 pm
You’re just getting a head start on the mortification of desire, Jim.
February 25, 2009 at 12:06 am
Time to get out that next breviary and get those ribbons set!
AMDG,
Janet
February 25, 2009 at 12:19 am
Already done — well, not the ribbons. I get too confused with the ribbons. I don’t remember what the passages are for the Ash Wednesday Office of Readings. St. Clement?
February 25, 2009 at 1:20 am
Yes. “Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ . . .”
How do you manage without the ribbons?
AMDG, Janet
February 25, 2009 at 2:33 am
My evening was spent conducting a seminar on the function of history in Thomas Hardy’s poetry. Spoilers: He challenges it and fosters ambiguity. Bet you didn’t see that coming!
Anyway, it was a mad whirlwind of indulgence and debauchery.
February 25, 2009 at 6:39 am
Computer lab–learning how to do what I do at work everyday.
February 25, 2009 at 10:37 am
Glad to hear that everyone had a raucous evening. Our party was a great success: clamouring appetites were sated, friendships were renewed and fortified, and female bosoms — whether for better or worse, I won’t say — remained discreetly veiled.
One of our guests made a King cake, apparently a seasonal favourite in the American south. It was excellent.
February 25, 2009 at 10:40 am
About the ribbons: it’s not true that I don’t use them, only that I find them confusing. One for the daily readings / morning & evening prayer, one for the psalmody, one for the calendar of saints. But what are the other ones for?
February 25, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I’ve usually found king cakes a bit disappointing–basically a big cinnamon roll, rather on the dry side. Sometimes there’s a filling, which helps.
February 25, 2009 at 7:10 pm
It was my first taste of king cake. It was delicious.
February 25, 2009 at 10:41 pm
But what are the other [ribbons] for?
A girl has to look pretty, after all.
February 25, 2009 at 11:06 pm
The ribbons. I hate to tell you this but I put together my own ribbons on a great big gold paper clip that I attached to the plastic covers I have, not to the books themselves. I have little medals attached to three of them and those three go to the Office of Readings, the Psalmody, and the calendar of Saints. But you know, there are those days around Christmas, for example, when it takes you hither and yon and three aren’t enough.
If there’s a saint’s day, you are going to have to have one for the saint of the day and for the common of holy men or something like that.
So, I keep one in the rubrics so I can quickly find the different antiphons for the Invitatory that are used during the Easter and Christmas seasons and so that I can find the Invitatory and Magnificat, etc. Even though I know them, sometimes I draw a blank and it’s nice to be able to find them quickly.
I keep one on Morning Prayer for Sunday Week I, because you’re always having to go there for some reason or another.
I keep one in Night Prayer, which I say maybe twice a year.
I keep one on the Optional Memorial of the Blessed Virgin on Saturdays, which I say on any Saturday when it’s allowable.
And I keep one back in the other commons: holy men, holy women, etc.
AMDG,
Janet
February 26, 2009 at 8:24 am
Craig, it is a testament to your hosting that I was not hungry all day yesterday.
February 26, 2009 at 8:25 am
Computer glitch! That last comment was mine.
February 26, 2009 at 8:50 am
That is gratifying to hear, Kathy — and from she of the prodigious appetite, no less! As for me, well, I can only say that I fell on my breakfast today with wild eyes.
February 26, 2009 at 9:02 am
At 11:03 p.m., when I should have been in bed for an hour and a half, I was thinking that if I just stayed up for another 57 minutes, I could eat something, but wisdom prevailed. I know this is stupid, but this one day of regular eating in between two fast days makes me rather desperate for food. I will try not to give in to the desire to eat too much in preparation for tomorrow.
AMDG,
Janet
February 26, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Oh, silly me. We don’t have to fast tomorrow. This struck me on the way to work.
AMDG,
Janet
February 26, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Some people do fast on Fridays in Lent, but I am not among them. I just assumed that you were.
You have a well-organized ribbon system. I must not do everything properly, because I never use the “commons”. I also have a ribbon for Night Prayer. I forgot about it.