Sunday, January 31, 2016

Welcome to February and one of the earliest Lent's ever

Yep tomorrow we start writing month 2 on all our correspondence.  If the years are starting to fly by all too quickly, so are the days and weeks within these quickly moving years.  It really, truly feels like we just celebrated Christmas and beginning to get used to the new days of the new year.  And yet here we sit on the eve of February.

After February dawns we will also be waking up to just a week and a half until Lent.  Now down here in south Louisiana, just a quick hour away from New Orleans, this means everything right now is Mardi Gras.  Fortunately, I have outgrown Mardi Gras for sometime now and do not get caught up in all that Mardi Gras foolishness.  If it is your cup of tea, I'm happy for you.  Having done the Mardi Gras thing for the first 40 years of my life, I am no longer sure what the attraction is.  Yet it is a cultural thing for us down here and it is just one small ingredient in the giant gumbo pot of New Orleans.  Many would be surprised to know that Mardi Gras is supposed to be a preparation for Lent.  The season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving begins this year on February 10th.  Soon we will see the ashes of Ash Wednesday, the purple of the liturgical season and the meatless Fridays which also means KC Friday Fish Fry's to get us ready for Friday Stations of the Cross!

Before we get to Lent I am excited that the week ahead brings one preliminary event that reminds me that my daughter Elizabeth's wedding will now be just 2 months away, and another big event has our Archbishop Gregory Aymond coming to spend an entire evening with his Permanent Deacons.

February brings lots of change, we still might get some winter temps but we all know that slowly we begin transitioning to spring, baseball returns to the college sports calendar and Lenten devotions and practices become an important part of our lives.

So be prepared, month #1 of 2016 is behind us now; let #2 begin!

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