Slogans for Lent

Lent. Thoughts about Lent. A couple of slogans for Lent.

Lovely day for a penance.

The best penance in town.

Ash Wednesday, Premium Penance.

My sinfulness/My Penance

When tempted remember to reach for penance instead

This morning a walk along Rhode Island Avenue. Charming cold stillness waiting for a little snow.

A quiet prelude leading toward an examination of conscience. All human beings have troubles, all human beings have occasions when they sin. We are still able to pray, to petition God for mercy, forgiveness. Patience is always needed. Earthly and fleshly pleasures are temporal, provide only fleeting happiness. An examination of conscience allows each Christian to learn how to understand and to navigate their individual spiritual landscape. Sin is an invasion of chaos, confusion. Many humans are unable to withstand this invasion of temptation and stimulation. Morals develop to help human beings find goodness. Penance helps human beings find holiness. Secular societies downplay the damage of sin upon the individual, upon the community if no legal crime has occurred. Christians endure with humility, charity, fortitude.

Tree limbs were sawed and tossed into a motorized chopper being pulled by a pick-up truck.

This afternoon a walk along Rhode Island Avenue. Disarming colorless sky with snow flurries.

A pleasant postlude to consider life’s troubles and consequences. Prayer and reflection remain positive alternatives. Silence and patience are always necessary if a person is to truly take stock of his life. Beneath all the superlatives, hyperbole is a society rotting from being too preoccupied with leisure and with pleasure. Individuals receive mixed signals and expectations from the media and get lost within the dreamscape, the eternal battle of good and bad, love and hate. There is too much noise, too many distractions, diversions. Goodness, social justice, fairness are not always seen as the best qualities to possess by a society concerned with physical appearances, physical pleasures. Immediacy is often praised and encouraged. Christians must always remember the impressions that sin can have on the hearts, their souls and on the hearts and souls of their families, friends.

People move on the sidewalk avoiding the ice, anxiously waiting to cross the street before the traffic light changes.