Dear Maggie —

Loved your post about the Fish Fry last week, and it’s got me wondering about how a spirit like yourself celebrates Lent exactly??  I know that Lent is not really early this year, but yet again, I find myself caught off-guard and surprised that it’s already Lent.  I guess you could say that I feel ill-prepared to prepare the way for the Lord! 🙂 I’m hoping that maybe you could give me a few suggestions of what to do this Lenten season… so I ask, what are you giving up for Lent this year?

— Ashen Asher

Dear Ashen —

Big shock here – but you’re not the only one!  Even we saints have trouble keeping track of the liturgical calendar each year… I’m always surprised by how early or late Lent is each year, or in this case, how early it feels, despite how late it’s actually occurring on the calendar.  So, I’m not sure I have a ready answer for you.  Truth be told, I went all out for Mardi Gras this year, and so I’m still reeling a bit from the haze of king cake and hurricanes.  Not that I didn’t make it bright and early for a cold and windy Ash Wednesday (who ordered the snow, BTW?!?) – but as for what I’m planning to do to honor this Lenten season, I’m still mulling over my options, as they say.  Honestly, I was going to give up Tik-Tok again this year – but I’m on a social media strike at the moment, so that one is null and void.  (Terry is on a strike from Walmart, Target, and Amazon – so together, we are two friends out of the loop and low on supplies!  We really need to try to sync our protests! 😂)  But I want to always be of help to our SMOS Community, so I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.  I’m going to open this up to our readers – and maybe both you and I can get some good suggestions for our Lenten plans.  

So, help a gal (and guy) out – send in your suggestions for what you think I should give up for Lent this year.  Email them to maggie@stmargaretstl.org – and I’ll report back next week with the best of what gets sent in.  One thing I’m pretty guaranteed to not give up is pancakes, so I’ll see all of you at the Scouts’ Breakfast for Dinner tomorrow night!  Until then…

— Maggie