Quote of the Month: April 2014

Since I am trying to catch up on my blogs I thought I'd backtrack and catch up on my quotes too. 

What you give up for Lent changes lives. - Catholic Relief Services

I don't exactly know who said/wrote that quote.  It was printed on the rice bowl Leah received in her Faith Formation class at the beginning of Lent.  You might remember our rice bowl experience last Lent from a blog entry I wrote in April 2013.  We gave up our Popcorn Friday treats and lunch out after church & Faith Formation classes and donated that money.  The enlightenment Leah and Aaron received about being grateful and thinking of others by participating in the Operation Rice Bowl project last year was priceless.  This year we decided to step up our game.

We again gave up our Popcorn Friday treats and donated the money instead.  Leah and Aaron also donated their "give" money.  (They each put $1 of their weekly allowance in a "give" fund.  Once they collectively reach $25 or more, they get to decide how to donate the money.)  Sometimes they would give an extra dollar or change.  In the six weeks of Lent we collected over $25 without feeling like we gave anything up.  The great part is, and what follows the quote, is our donation based upon what we gave up for Lent really has the power to change lives.  According CRS (Catholic Relief Services) a donation of $10 buys two weeks of food for a family of six.  $25 buys health exams for 13 kids and $30 can provide up to two years of seeds for a farmer, all because we gave up having popcorn and cookies after school on Fridays for six weeks.  It's pretty amazing when you think about it.

This Lent we stepped up our game by trying some of the recipes too.  As you may know, Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.  CRS has weekly stories from around the world of how donations helped individuals or villages from a region then they include a meatless recipe from that region.  This past Lent we tried two of those recipes:  Mukimo from Kenya and Frijoles Volteados from Guatemala.

Mukimo was not a big hit at our house. 

Mukimo is a concoction of potatoes, peas, spinach and corn.  Honestly, it didn't taste like much of anything.  It was kind of like eating mashed potatoes with corn and peas stirred into it.  Leah tried two or three bites (which impressed me) but Aaron refused altogether.  Needless to say it will not be made again at our house.  The Frijoles Volteados had potential.  It was like a black bean paste that was served in a tortilla.  It was kind of bland and I didn't even bother to try to get the kids to taste it.  I do think you could use the recipe as an outline and build on it into something a little more interesting.  I may try do something with it for Lent 2015.

I can't tell you how many people I have encountered in my life, many of them not even Catholic or practicing Christians, who give up chocolate or some sort of sweets for Lent.  They use it as a springboard for beginning a diet and they lament over how hard it is for them to do this for 40 days.  I think the big picture is maybe for 40 days out of the year (at least), we can think of someone other than ourselves.  And maybe we need to remember that living without chocolate for 40 days is not hard living compared to people who have to spend hours a day hauling clean water to their homes so they can safely drink and cook for their families.  Lent is not about giving something up for ourselves, it is about giving alms to someone else less fortunate.  This rice bowl project has helped remind/clarify this to me.  I plan to make this rice bowl project a tradition for Lent for our family regardless of whether the next parish we move to participates.  I would encourage anybody of any religion to consider giving something up for 40 days then donate the money they would have spent to the charity of their choice.  What you give up could change a person's life.