What I'm doing for Lent

[Lydia Leftcoast]

Well, there's the usual giving up stuff that's bad for me like white flour and sugar, but what I'm ADDING, as usual, is study.

A few years ago, a member of my church who is a professor of ancient history started offering Lenten study groups on early Christian topics. In the past three years, I attended series on Augustine of Hippo, the Desert Fathers, and martyrdom (not gory "Lives of the Martyrs" type stuff but primary readings about how the early Christians viewed it, why the Romans persecuted them, how they avoided it if possible, and how they dealt with people who had recanted under torture).

Well, this year that professor is on leave, but a bunch of us regulars from previous years are getting together to read selections from Early Christian Fathers by Cyril Richardson. So far we've read the Didache and the Epistle of Clement. Next up are the letters of Ignatius.