Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Keeping Your Lent on the Right Side of the Law

My officemate, a sometime Methodist, asked me what I was doing for Ash Wednesday. I mentioned that I had begun Lent with the Commination this morning, a sixteenth century thing, though I had used the seventeenth century version. I explain that its name derives from the Latin for threatening, so it involves a lot of threatening.

"[Caelius]", she says, "You're going to have to explain that."

"What do you mean?"

"You're not doing anything illegal, are you?"

Having determined what she meant, I responded, "Oh, no, it's entirely legal to threaten yourself."

The Monastery would like to wish you all a Holy Lent.

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