Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the start of the season of Lent (see my Lent 101 post from 2007 for more background information). That means today is Shrove Tuesday. I confess that I celebrate this more by the title of Pancake Day and I am looking forward to getting together with some friends tonight for a pancake bonanza!
I am also thinking about how to mark the Lenten season though. Tomorrow evening I will be joining the Home community for an Ash Wednesday service at St Alban’s church (on Charles Street – 8pm start), which should provide a contemplative space at the start of the period.
Some kind of daily discipline is also a common Christian practise in the time leading up to Easter. I have decided that I am going to give up early morning web-surfing during the week. With my new set up involving a twenty minute cycle to work each morning and demanding other preparations like thinking about lunch, time seems very short in the morning. By saving some time, I can make a more considered start to each morning. If you see an early morning blog post over the next couple of months, then it was probably queued up the night before.
It will be a big change, as spending an hour or more on the computer before going to work has been my routine for years now, but that is the whole point of this deliberate season.
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