Keeping Lent. (editors' note).

In the early years of our marriage, my husband and I reinstated the keeping of Lent in our adult lives by giving up going out to eat. This was one heavy sacrifice. I didn't like to cook (some things, at least, remain constant in life), and Mike's culinary offerings could be counted on one hand with a few fingers to spare.

We kept this up for a few years, during which time we had a baby. A few Februaries later, as we considered our Lenten options, I said, only half kidding, "This year we ought to make sure we go out to eat every week for Lent!" And so we did. With a toddler, staying home had become the path of least resistance. Finding (and paying) a baby-sitter was the challenge, not to mention watching our offspring sob at the window as we drove off. The weekly evening out became a vital part of staying connected, giving life to our marriage.

Then, three years ago, Mike said, "Why don't we give up TV for Lent this year?" I said receptively, "You're kidding, right?" Although I did cherish my solitary hour watching medical mayhem on ER, I more dreaded losing !he occasional freedom from the kids' demands that TV could provide for a half hour or an hour. In other words, could I really go 40 days without a nap? I skeptically agreed to a few TV-less days each week, which grew until last year, When we finally went TV-free. Our 12-year-old also gave up computer games; he confessed at Easter that 40 days without his "screens" had been much easier than he thought it would be. We played games and read aloud on some nights of Lent; we listened to baseball on the radio. I didn't wish, when it was over, to get rid of our TV, but it's been good to know we can all live without it. It bestows a certain freedom. And it made Lent significantly different from the rest of the year, which is the whole point.

"We have days and seasons that we name and keep. And when we do, they keep us. It is not that the Catholics keep Lent, but that Lent keeps the Catholics," writes Gabe Huck in Claretian Publications' new parish-resource series, In Good Faith/De Buena Fe. Whatever you do to keep Lent, it is worth marking the days before Christ's Passion and Rising so that they do not melt into every other day of the year. Keeping Lent helps keep us Catholic.

If you're still skeptical, go directly to Father Paul Boudreau's "Don't give up nothing this Lent" (pages 14-18). He relates how he gave up chocolate chip cookies for Lent last year and found that "halfway through the second week, my give-up gave up and I folded like a cheap suitcase." As you see him wrestle with the meaning and practice of Lent, you may find a kindred spirit. And let him know what you think about his plan to give up beets this year.