Lent 2006

Into every year, a little Lenten excitement must fall. This is something I wrote last spring (only slightly adapted) when I was journaling, not to myself, but in letter (email, actually) form to someone who is well and long gone from my life:

THIS IS HYSTERICAL. So, I called today to confirm our Citronelle dinner rezzies this Friday. Done, no problem, right? Except I recall that Friday, besides being St. Patrick’s day, is also a Friday in Lent – and [my dining partner] is a fairly observant Catholic. So I point this out to her, wondering if she had noticed (since she OKed the reservations in the first place and there are lots of seafood options for French food). Actually, she hadn’t, so she freaked. But then! I saw in the Post [two days before the dining event] an article talking about the quaint tradition of giving Catholics in certain parishes a dispensation from the non-meat-eating Friday thing for celebrating Saint Patrick’s day…and [the parish where we were both living at the time] was mentioned in the article.

So I got all hopeful and Googley and I found this in an online copy of The Catholic Herald:

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February 13, 2006

Dear Brothers and Sister in Christ,

Although Roman Catholics over the age of 14 are obliged to abstain from eating meat on the Fridays of Lent, Catholics of the Diocese of [where we were living] are dispensed from this obligation on March 17, 2006, in observance of Saint Patrick’s Day as long as they choose another day during the week of March 13-18 to abstain.

Faithfully in Christ, Most Reverend Bishop of [where we were living]
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Woohoo! I would make a wicked awesome Catholic! Behold, I am an awesome researcher! I love the word awesome! I love you St. Patrick!!!