also known as the week where I do all those things that I didn’t get done over vacation.

For myself, Lent has more or less officially begun. I’m allergic to dairy, so being able to partake of it this week doesn’t make much of a difference. I don’t really eat eggs anyway, nor large amounts of olive oil, and I can’t stand alcohol. Having been a vegetarian for nearly three years (and a vegan for one year), I actually look forward to cleansing myself from meat for awhile. But of course, fasting is only one aspect of Lent.

As we fast from food, let us abstain also from every passion. . .
Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.
True fasting is to put away all evil,
To control the tongue, to forbear from anger,
To abstain from lust, slander, falsehood and perjury.
If we renounce these things, then is our fasting true and acceptable to God.
Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food,
But by becoming strangers to all the bodily passions.

[Vespers for Sunday evening (Sunday of Forgiveness)]