B E B E R E

I'm about as Cafeteria Catholic as they come, so why give anything up for Lent?

Have puzzled over it for years. I had a tumultous growing-up which ended with the two biggest acts of defiance I could muster: quitting the Church two weeks before being confirmed and moving out of state. During and after College, I experimented with religions like some young people do with drugs, sex, vegetarianism. Am not quite sure what I was looking for: a magic mix of tolerance, ceremony and good music, perhaps? Whatever the reasons, I always found myself sneaking off to get my ashes and later palms and I always found myself giving something up for Lent.

There's something about the season which steels the resolve and aids in success. Forty days isn't forever, but it's still a relatively long time. Abstainers band together and edge each other on in subtle ways. Sometimes it just feels good to deny yourself something you really enjoy and giving the proceeds to someone who really needs it.

The ritual (borne of necessity - the Church instituted the period of fasting at the time when the food stores were at their lowest and starvation of parishioners or revenue sources would be the most likely; a public health policy of willing spirit pulling along weak flesh) links me to other practitioners over the millennia. I feel a sense of structure and a deeper network of roots than what the family's put down in this continent.

I am about as Cafeteria as they come, but I am Catholic. Have tried hard to weed it out, but it keeps coming back.

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Oh, here we go! Like I said, Catholics of the world unite! (probably not work safe)