OK so here it is. Numero Uno. Placed probably as far away as any of them will be thanks to a school day trip to Dunkirk for Esta (where, she tells me, she used the sum total of *one* French sentence. Ah good to know the day wasn't wasted at least). She apologised that it's only hanging in the car park of a hypermarket, but who's to know?
I was rather disheartened to realise that last year's Lent photo-a-day project was also supposed to a whistle stop tour of inspirational reflections. That didn't transpire, perhaps because Nadia Bolz Weber who I linked to on the first day was too hard an act to follow!
Anyway this year I've already been inspired by two people, so that's nearly a roll. So, I'll aim high and be ready to fail... or whatever the saying is.
Today's inspiration is from none other than the Pope-y McPope-face. I love this guy. A friend shared this Easter message - which is in fact from 2015 - and his message is (to paraphrase) don't bother giving anything up if it doesn't actually benefit anyone but yourself. And helping others hurts. Or at least it should do. Ouch. I'm with him on the giving things up. Mostly because I've always been absolutely lousy at it. But the giving till it hurts is definitely going to be a tough challenge for me this Lent. I'm not only devoid of self control, I'm also a bit of a selfish git. Oh my. 40 days is a long time.
Pope Francis, so the article in Time Magazine says, often quotes the early Christian mystic John Chrysostom who said: "No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great."
Since Catholics (and others) have historically been so big on the whole self-flagellation school of purity, the ascetic way of living, the hermits, the self denial, the guilt, the removing oneself from the world, I find this extraordinarily refreshing.
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