True Lent

Robert Herrick wrote:

To Keep a True Lent

Is this a fast, to keep
The larder leane?
And cleane
From fat of veales and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?

Is it to faste an houre,
Or ragg'd to go,
Or show
A downcast look, and sowre?

No: 'tis a fast, to dole
Thy sheaf of wheat
And meat
Unto the hungry soule.

It is to fast from strife,
From old debate,
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.

To shew a heart grief-rent;
To starve thy sin,
Not bin;
And that's to keep thy Lent.

Robert Herrick - 17th century

hot & cross

The next sign that the world derives so much of its celebration from the faith and yet hasn't got a clue about it has appeared in the shops. Hot Cross Buns.

Mind you Easter eggs have been there for two weeks.

Having just got over Christmas, Lent has not even begun and already we are being offered hot-cross buns, a food proper to Holy Week. (around the end of March). The spices symbolise the preparation of the body of the dead Jesus.

You can of course buy modern HC buns without any spice, specially for the bland. What's the point? They should be called what they are. Rolls!

You can even buy chocolate HCB. This seems to me almost profane.

Woolies have for many years called them Red Cross buns, at least the ones I saw this afternoon were called Hot Cross Buns.

No tides will be turned back now. What a world we live in!

Pancake Tuesday

We loved this day as children, it was the only day we ever had pancakes. Now I have a 15 year old who can whip up a mean batch for breakfast any Saturday.

Today as I lead a (pre-Lent) Bible study we were talking about how this Christian Festival (Shrove Tuesday...the day before Lent begins, sometimes even called Mardi Gras or "greasy Tuesday"  to translate) had been taken over as hundreds of pancakes were given away in Rundle Mall without any explanation.

The trouble is it's ancient. The trouble is it's northern hemisphere.  The trouble is we live in the (in my opinion) second-most secular country in the world (after France).

Any way...'shrove' means "having gone to confession"...when you are shriven you go to the priest and confess....I must admit I have not been run off my feet!!  

But perhaps give a thought before you guzzle another pancake with blueberry cream and ice cream...perhaps it's worth doing something about the crap in your life too.!!

Happy Lent!