Lenten penances

Ever since I entered the seminary, I've been used to the yearly assembly called for just some days before the Lenten season in order to come up with a community Lenten penance.

Community penance is carried out under the spirit of the Lenten season. Since we are religious, it also highlights the communal character, meaning, the mode of the penance is agreed upon by every member of the community. Once agreed upon, it would be carried out daily except on Sundays.

This is on top of the individual penance that each of us chooses.

The perennial picks are the following:

• Batch/community work (the brother assistant designates a place in the community which needs attention, and the community will concentrate its effort there).
• Silent work/chores (the spirit behind this is to maximize every minute/hour, the idea is to be in solidarity with the poor)
• No cold water
• No condiments
• No snacks
• No dessert

Over the past years, there have also been ‘ultra creative’ community penance suggestions. I could enumerate some like "silence during games," "dawn work," and "no breakfast at all daily."

Last year, when I was a novice, we adapted the penance of the Salesians:

1. Extra visit to the Blessed Sacrament, and
2. No afternoon snacks

This year, our community has come up with the following resolutions

1. 30-minute community adoration.
2. Community work on Fridays.
3. No meat during supper

Of course, these acts are merely external. They help us as we journey through the forty days, but there is a great danger of losing the whole point of the Lenten season if we fix our gaze only on these. For our sacrifices would become only meaningful if we offer it to the suffering Christ.

Musings on Ash Wednesday

If there is one moment in the liturgical year I love to hate, it would be Ash Wednesday.

Not only because it ushers in the beginning of the 40 or so days of the Lenten season, which means, meat has to be set aside on a regular basis (on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of lent for 14 years old and above) and fasting has to be observed (fasting means eating only one full meal a day for 18 years old and above), but more than these legalese expressions, Ash Wednesday gives us a grim reminder of the finality of life, of our life.

Whew! That was a load of a sentence up there!

Seriously now, the very symbol of Ash Wednesday foreshadows what awaits me after my earthly sojourn.

I am mere dust. I am nothing.

***

Except for metaphysicians, "nothingness" would really mean nothing to us. It's just that... nothing.

But to bring home the idea of nothing means we are mere mortal. We are not in control.

We could soar high, dream big dreams, win big in life, but at the end of the day, everything will amount to nothing. One day, we would have to stop breathing, and our bodily organs would cease from functioning.

And we would be dead. Flat line follows.

And the hair and the body and the face which we took good care of when we were still alive would start corrupting right after some days. Until every part of our body would return to its original matter: dust.

photo credit: http://news.bn.gs. the very image i used in this entry could be found here.