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Chocolate? No, TV

Our unusual Lenten fast.

"Where shall the world be found, where will the word resound? Not here, there is not enough silence." — T.S. Eliot



At my house, the TV is off. It will be until Easter. The first time this happened, it was accident, coincidence.

Some years ago, a few weeks before Easter, a burglar took some odd pieces of jewelry, a shirt my cousin gave me for Christmas, and my VCR. Worse, he took the adapter for the cable box. The antenna reception on the television was bad, so I turned it off until I could get a new adapter. I was busy with seminary and all the stuff of Easter, anyway.

Holy Week was quiet that year. And moving. We staged "The Living Last Supper" one more time, but this time it was as if I had never seen it before. Its message sank into my bones. "Is it I?" the disciples asked Jesus of his betrayer. They waited for his answer.

So did I.

I'm from a tradition that doesn't give up things for Lent. In fact, we often pick up the vices others lay down (bar-b-ques on Friday, Cadbury parties). ...

May/June
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