The Start of 40 Days

Today was Ash Wednesday - which is always a challenge for me.

In the Catholic church it is a day of fasting, which means one meal-sized meal and something small and nutritious on either side of that meal. Also, no meat (and I'm allergic to fish) so it's pretty tricky for me besides the fact that I am a real grazer! I was proud to say that I didn't snack all day at work.

I sort of view Lent as a second chance New Year's resolution. I didn't really make any firm resolutions for the new year so my plans for Lent are:

No spending money outside of my essential expenses - I'm pretty impulsive, when I see something cute at a reasonable price I buy it with little thought. This will be a good exercise. I'm very tight-fisted about big purchases... but it's the small ones that add up.

Pray the Rosary Daily - I'm very lazy about this and I've actually already blown it for the first day of lent.

Socialize at least once a week - I know that doesn't sound like a sacrifice but I've decided it's something essential for my well-being. My social life pretty much collapsed while I was unemployed and poor. I'm making it a goal to rotate some new girlfriends into my weekly socials...we will be trying to meet men. God wants this for me. He does not want me to be alone.

I ended up going to Ash Wednesday service late this evening. The last opportunity of the day.
This Mass is usually more relaxed than our regular mass... and altar servers, lectors and other helpers are not necessarily lined up in advance.

So when it was time for the distribution of the ashes, Father asked for some of the Eucharistic Ministers to come up and help. So I did. That was the first time I got to distribute ashes which was a neat experience.

Then at communion, he had to ask for EMs again - so I was a busy servant at Mass.

The point of sharing that little fact is... when you serve during the Mass, people notice. There was a small family sitting in front of me that I had never seen before. I just assumed that they frequented a different Mass time.
Turns out they were new to Denver and to my church and so, when I leaned ahead at the conclusion of Mass to tell their daughter I thought her dress was very cute... the mom took the opportunity to introduce her family, share that they were new, and ask if I didn't just love serving as a Eucharistic Minister. Then she complimented me on my singing voice.

Isn't that just nice?!
I'm so glad she introduced herself, because I get really frustrated in the church that all the married people with families tend to keep to themselves - to the exclusion of singles in my opinion.

I'm going to like this family!