What to give up for lent, non food suggestions

[Red_Meg]

*]Give up relations with your spouse
*]Give up bathing.
*]Give up clean clothes.
.
*]Stop brushing your teeth.

Okay, enough for now.

Yikes!

I’m a pretty big believer in St. Josemaria’s advice: Choose mortifications that don’t mortify others. Anyone who didn’t avoid all contact with other people would definitely start to mortify others after a few days of neglecting personal hygiene…

Margaret

 

[lada]

Here is what I’m thinking:

Social computer time - I still pay bills and do homeschool things online, but the rest I could go without.
Alcohol
Eating out - now this WOULD affect others, specifically my children, but I think it would be a good sacrifice for them as well.
Stations of the cross every Friday.
Bingo? Gosh that would be hard, I definitely look forward to Bingo every week.
Complaining, gossip, talking negatively about others.
I like the idea of headcovering at Mass - something I"ve been thinking a lot about already

 

[Mrs_Sally]

We usually give up ‘screens’. That’s TV for hubby, video games for the kids, and surfin’ the 'net for me! It can be pretty hard, especially when the weather is bad and it’s hard for the kids to get lots of outside play to use up their time.

I’m going to try to increase my devotions (daily Mass, rosary, etc.) as a “taking up” rather than a “giving up”.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

I’m not Catholic, but do observe Lent; I came up with this idea one year when I was already eating such a strict diet that there was nothing left to give up!

I covered my hair. Now, I am basically a pretty down-to-Earth, low-maintenance type of woman, but I am absolutely anal about my hair. How I wash it, what to wash it with, conditioners, leave-in conditioners, hairstyles, accessories…you name it. So I decided I would cover my head, at least in public, during Lent–“giving up” my pride. It turned out to be one of the most meaningful things I’ve ever done, and it eventually led to me covering my hair full-time.

Another nice idea–a church that I belonged to at the time gave everyone Lenten calendars and a piggy bank (actually, just a mason jar with a slot cut in the lid). The calendar had a different blessing/privilege every day that you were to pay attention to, and a small amount of money to ‘donate’ in gratitude.

For example, one day might be “5 cents for every pair of shoes you own,”
another day might be “25 cents if you took a hot shower today,”
another day “$1 if you have electricity in your house,”
or–gulp!!–1 cent for every pound you weigh."

The amount of money to be donated any given day was always small, and the blessings/privileges were things that almost all of us would possess (food, shelter, the ability to read, owning a car, etc.). At the end of the Lenten season, piggy banks were collected and the money given to a worthy cause. Maybe you could do something like that? It really made me aware of how blessed I am.

Miz

What a terrific idea! I would really like to find something like that!

 

[rpp]

If you do the latter three the first one will take care of itself.

Thank you so much. I have not laughed that hard for a long time.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Yikes!

I’m a pretty big believer in St. Josemaria’s advice: Choose mortifications that don’t mortify others. Anyone who didn’t avoid all contact with other people would definitely start to mortify others after a few days of neglecting personal hygiene…

Margaret

AMEN. Nor am I a supporter of ‘doing extra things’ instead of giving things up. Soon, giving up for Lent will lose all its meaning.

RRP: My pleasure.

 

[Red_Meg]

Ooh, I remembered one thing my sister-in-law did last year.

With the caveat: this will affect the entire household therefore you can only do this if everyone is on board! Her children are all sufficiently young that it didn’t really register with them.

She kept her family’s total food spending (groceries, eating out, etc…) to what they would be allowed if they were on Food Stamps. I don’t know where she dug up the information, but plugging in her number of children, plus herself and husband, told her what her monthly allowance would be, and that was all.they.could.spend on food. Which meant the fast food went out the window immediately and a lot of the convenience foods and indulgent things got pitched as well.

It was a definite “giving up” of things, but also a very eye-opening experience for them as to the difficulty of living in such a way on a more permanent basis. I believe they gave the difference between their “allocation” and their normal food expenditures to the local food bank, so it really hit both the fasting and the alms-giving end of things.

Best,

Margaret

PS I can’t repeat the not imposing on other people thing enough-- this may sound petty, but I’ll include it anyway-- my birthday falls during Lent almost every year. A number of years ago, one or two of my in-laws decided to give up chocolate for Lent. Fine. But that then meant that my birthday cake couldn’t be chocolate, because they didn’t want to not have cake… I didn’t give up chocolate for Lent!!! I know, I know, it’s petty, but it did irk me at the time.

 

[puzzleannie]

well I can tell you what would be hardest, giving up CAF