Lenten sacrifices

It's that time of year again - the time when every fast food restaurant is promoting fish sandwiches, Long John Silvers's parking lot looks like the malls at Christmas time, and the entire community stuffs into the local KC Hall for burnt fish. It's Lent!
For Catholics, Lent means a time of sacrifice. We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and we fast from meat every Friday. Most people usually give up something else - candy, soft drinks, alcohol, etc. However, on Sunday, our priest challenged us to take it a step further. To make a more personal, and definitely more challenging, sacrifice. He challenged us to forgive our enemies. After all, as Christians, we are supposed to "love thy enemies." Give forgiveness to receive forgiveness. And, as he pointed out, that doesn't just mean general enemies like the terrorists or President Bush - it means people who have hurt us personally.

To me, this is one of the greatest challenges we are faced with as Christians. To forgive those who mistreat us - to turn the other cheek - to pray for them and love them. Unfortunately, the gospel doesn't come with an instruction manual. No one can tell me HOW to forgive - they just tell me I should. Well, if it was based solely on desire, I would've accomplished it by now. But the secret lies somewhere besides desire. And it's my Lenten promise to figure it out. In the meantime, I'll pray. I'll seek advice. I'll try. But I only have 40 days...

Maybe I should've just given up sweets.