Lent

Being a Catholic-Christian as I am today is a really big deal, today is the first day of Lent. Lent in some Christian denominations is the forty-day-long liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter Sunday. People always wanna know why is it that we have 40 days of fasting, well it represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent in the desert where he endured much temptation from satan. The reason we have Lent is so we can prepare to become true believers--through prayer, almsgiving(which is like any material favor that you can do to help the poor or needy), penitence(showing regret for all the wrongdoing we've done), and asceticism(abstinence from various worldly pleasures, especially sexual activity and consumption of alcohol).

This big word of asceticism brings me to my next point, and that point is that I made a promise to a friend last night that I would give up my use of alcohol for Lent, this was a choice I made up freely without them asking me to do this. This friend told me they had recently stopped using, and I am so happy to hear that from them and what it meant to me was a heck of a lot more then I can convey over a little blog. This will not be an easy task, especially with satan asking my friends to ask me to go out and drink. This isn't my friends fault, it is satan tempting me. I want to be very clear about this if anyone reading this decides to not give up drinking there is no problem at all with that!!! I am just choosing this journey for myself, because Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, I however have to just not drink for 40 days, but maybe more.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and can find something to give up for Lent, it doesn't have to be something rediculous, but why not have it be something you really treasure? I'll say a prayer for all of you out there. Today I am hoping to start a new tradition here on the LTJS blog, I'm gonna start by asking everyone a retorical question: What is the point of life without love?