There is no end to all the preconceptions and popular notions about what one should or must do during Lent. Undoubtedly, the most popular of them is that of “giving up something for Lent.” For centuries, the ‘something’ involved food. Nowadays, however, the something increasingly is a habit or an enjoyable activity other than that…

We so-called “Liturgical” Christians–read here: Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, some Lutherans, etc.–love our liturgy, thus our category marker. There is, we say, a way that worship has been offered and the eucharist celebrated for all the centuries of Christian practice, and we are loath even to consider departing from it. The truth,…

Friday, by long-standing tradition, is the day of the week assigned, every week, to particular penance and to fasting for the faithful. Just how many observant Christians still fast in some way on Friday nobody knows, nor does it matter much in general terms. But almost all Christians have some sense that Friday is, next…

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the Bed and Breakfast phenomenon. Like many another writer, I travel a great deal in the course of my work, talking to groups and lecturing. Providing me with housing while I am with any given group is always part of the contractual arrangement between us. Nine and…

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