Lent - Tumblr Posts
THIS IS YOUR YEARLY LENTEN REMINDER
If you have an eating disorder, GOD DOES NOT WANT you to fast from food on days of of fasting or avoid meat on days of abstinence. In your circumstance, it is NOT a path to holiness and God actively wills you to continue eating food in a healthy manner. God does not want you to risk your mental and physical health. This is your permission to eat because in your case, fasting is moving away from holiness.
If you have mental health issues or scrupulosity, GOD DOES NOT WANT you to impose unduly harsh or strict restrictions and penances on yourself. In your circumstance, it is NOT a path to holiness and God actively wills you to be gentle to yourself and focus on rekindling your love for Him in simple, natural ways - not getting hung up on self-imposed rules. God does not want you to risk your mental and physical health. This is your permission to be gentle on yourself because in your case, strictness and focusing on rules is moving away from holiness.
“It’s important to remember that the word ‘Lent’ itself comes from the old English word for ‘spring’. It’s not about feeling gloomy for forty days; it’s not about making yourself miserable for forty days; it’s not even about giving things up for forty days. Lent is springtime. It’s preparing for that great climax of springtime which is Easter—new life bursting through death. And as we prepare ourselves for Easter during these days, by prayer and by self-denial, what motivates us and what fills the horizon is not self-denial as an end in itself but trying to sweep and clean the room of our own minds and hearts so that the new life really may have room to come in and take over and transform us at Easter.”
— Rowan Williams (via mackjao)
It's that time of the year where I rewatch the same two Catholic films and act like I'm watching them for the first time.
“I’m shocked every year by the two Gospels from the Palm Sunday Mass, by how dramatically the tone changes and how the congregation is swung from one extreme to another. We walk into the church shouting Hosanna and waving palm branches, welcoming our Messiah with joy. Not 15 minutes later, we’re crying out, “Let him be crucified!” I thought it was strange, this bipolar shift from worship to betrayal. And then I realized it’s no accident, not just a convenient way to get the whole story into one Mass. It’s the life of a fallen Christian, crashing from praise into sin without even noticing the change. It’s my life.”
— Meg Hunter-Kilmer (+)
St. Dismas
Feast day: March 25
Patronage: repentant thieves, prisoners, undertakers
Saint Dismas was the good thief crucified with Jesus on Calvary. This is what St. Luke writes about him: 39 And one of those robbers who was hanged blasphemed him, saying: If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing; thou art under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly: for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done no evil. 42 And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise. Luke 23:39-43
Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)
Today is Spy Wednesday, the day Judas betrayed Jesus Christ.
Fish and Chips
I grew up Catholic and celebrate and observe certain rules. For many catholics like myself I have to remember to abstain from meat on certain days during Lent and that means Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays during Lent. So during these times I make it easy on myself, these are the days you would find me having some sushi rolls or some fish and chips.
“Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something holy. It’s not about nutrients and calories. It’s about sharing, It’s about honesty, It’s about identity.” -Louise Fresco
“I have given up attacking other knights for Lent…”
i entirely get why people are like "actually knights were historically land-owning nobles waging war on people" and reminding people that idealised modern conceptions of knights are not historically accurate, it's just really really funny given that people have been idealising the institution of knighthood since like. the twelfth century or earlier, go take it up with fucking chrétien de troyes
Going offline of twitter and tumblr for Lent tomorrow, see you all around Easter!
Ash Wednesday poem by Avery Smith
[ image description: black backgrounds with light gray borders and light gray text reading: there is something liberating /about being dust. / i ease my clenched fists open / release control over my own life / and let the breath of God / blow me where it will. / if i am stepped on, /it is no humiliation /and maybe the foot that smashes/will carry me down paths / unknown,to worlds/ surprising. / dust has no need for food or drink/ or all that ties down weary bones./dust is not concerned with things /too big for it – / it simply is. / God if i must be dust / let me beyour dust. / let me be/packed into a brick on a lonely woman’s cottage /or built into the child’s mud pie /or let me lie/at the base of a weed /and nourish it with all that i am. / even as dust i am / your beloved;/i am beloved and safeguarded by you. / God i am dust /and i am yours: / shape me as you will. / end id]