Arrepiéntete y cree en el evangelio

Today is Thursday after Ash Wednesday. We’re in Lent, but not in the first actual week of Lent, which starts this Sunday. So yes, all the abstinence rules apply. There’s still time to figure out what you’re going to give up. I have a couple of standbys, both aimed squarely at my sweet tooth and liver.

Lent is as terrific a time to acquire a new habit as it is to let go a bad one. Add some regular silence to your day. Pray the rosary at noon. Download one of the apps and read the Liturgy of the Hours or the daily readings. Do a nightly examen. Go to daily Mass. Years ago I asked a deacon what he intended to give up for Lent and his answer was “Nothing! But I will attend mass every single day from now until Easter!”

In other news, my number finally came up for jury duty this month and I was ordered to report this morning. It was something of a relief for this shoe to drop. In our county, you’re sort of on-call for an entire month, calling in every evening to find out via automatic message if your group reports the following morning. It’s made planning things a bit crazy since I never know until the evening before what my following day will look like. Surely, I thought, they won’t be starting a trial on a Thursday, but friends that is exactly what they did. I was dismissed after several rounds of voir dire, probably because of extensive LEO family-members. They never tell you why though. They thank you for coming, dismiss you, and that’s pretty much it.

I have to confess that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the summons, but a judge gave a very nice speech during our orientation and by the end, I had changed my mind a bit about the whole thing. A lot of this goodwill was in danger of evaporating after we learned that some administrative issues were causing a late start so everything too an extra-long time. There was lots of waiting, and we ended up breaking for lunch which turned out to be the high point of the day as I got to try a deli downtown that was worth every bit of the hype. Domenico’s, if you’re in the area. I had “The Paisan” and it was fabulous.

They told us that we’re still technically on the hook for the rest of this month and that we need to keep calling in, since there are still trials on the calendar. I sort of hope they do now, because I hear the hot pastrami is to die for.

Just, please, not on a Friday.