What if pregnancy has me craving what I gave up for Lent?

[daisygurl4]

For Lent this year I gave up chicken nuggets – my all-time favorite food. I recently found out I’m pregnant and I am almost seven weeks along and I am CONSTANTLY craving chicken nuggets! I figured this far along in Lent it wouldn’t be cravings because I missed not having the food when I was able to cut it very easily from my diet more than a month ago. I would hate to indulge in this food because I gave it up for Lent but it is also hard to resist the pregnancy cravings. It took my husband and I eighteen months to conceive and part of me is honestly worried that God will punish me for giving in before Easter and take away my baby. I know that sounds pretty intense and could just be a result of pregnancy hormones and food cravings.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

First of all, congratulations! And, two, please relax.

Lenten sacrifices over and above what the Church requires are purely voluntary. They can be set aside at will. If you really must eat chicken nuggets or go nuts (), and assuming that a pregnant woman can eat chicken nuggets in moderation, then eat the chicken nuggets and don’t worry about it. The idea that God would “punish” you by “taking away” your baby if you ate chicken nuggets is a fear that is not rooted in reality. God is not vengeful or malicious. If, God forbid, anything did happen, it would not happen because you set aside a Lenten sacrifice.

All that said, perhaps you might first try telling yourself you can have your chicken nuggets on Sunday. Setting aside Lenten sacrifices on the Sundays of Lent is a popular custom Catholics have developed to allow them to give up a favorite pleasure “for Lent” without actually having to go the full “forty days” without it. And, to look at it less cynically and more spiritually, it is also a way to honor the festive nature of the Lord’s Day during a penitential season.