lent

Giving up Facebook for Lent?

Jeromey Balderrama

To the Catholics reading this, if your answer is “Yes” to this question then you’re a braver person than I.  However, if you are looking to give up Facebook for the next 40 days Lindsey Turrentine from CNet has an awesome write-up on some steps to do it without people thinking you died.

How to give up Facebook for Lent (CNet)

The best idea on the write-up is changing your photo to be a black box stating that you’re off Facebook for Lent.  Great tips!

To those of you staying off Facebook: good luck! Me, I’ve decided to give up parking close for Lent. I spend a lot of time driving around looking for that magical spot – that’s going to stop.  If you’re driving and see me walking across from the furthest parking space, try not to speed up.

Updated Lent Movies

Jeromey Balderrama

Alright, I finally got my hands on my “Cycle A” book, and have the new list of movies going forward. There seem to be some pretty good ones as well:

I’m going to go ahead and kick off with Week 3, but I’ll see if I can go back and at least squeeze in reflections on Phenomenon as well, as I really enjoyed that movie.  Wish me luck!

Yet another way to screw up movie reflections

Jeromey Balderrama

I was well on my way to writing my movie reflections for Quiz Show, gathering up all of the readings and answering the discussion questions.  I then realized that the readings I had in the book didn’t match up to what those readings were.  Being the bad Catholic I am, I didn’t realize that we are in Lectionary Cycle A and NOT Cycle C.  But I was using the book from Cycle C… Crap…

So basically I’ve found yet another way to screw up these lent movie reflections.  I’m pretty bummed because I had all of the movies queued up and on my way to my house, and obviously I had already done Quiz Show.  Argh.

I do have the Lectionary A book, but I don’t have it with me.  Being this far behind and making such a stupid mistake, I’m going to cut my losses on the first two weeks.  I’ll pick it up tomorrow and start at the 3rd Sunday of Lent in the right movie cycle.  I’ll push out a new movie list as well.  Argh.

By the way, that means I’m using a different book, the Cycle A version.

More on Lent movie reflections

Jeromey Balderrama

As I said in my earlier post, I was hoping to already have Quiz Show this weekend so that I could post some reflections this evening.  Since I set aside time tonight to do that, I’ll just go through the listing of the movies for review (again, these come from the “Lights, Camera, Faith” book, which offers movies that reflect on the theme for readings in the Catholic Lectionary:

If you’re looking for the corresponding readings, I would suggest checking out the USCCB’s web site.  If you’re interested in seeing any of these movies and sharing reflections, I definitely would enjoy the dialog.  Let me know if you’re interested.

Kicking off Lent

Jeromey Balderrama

It’s hard to believe that Ash Wednesday is already here (and granted it is much earlier this year), but thus begins the 6 week period of reflection, prayer, abstaining and not-so-good liturgical music (especially from the drummer’s perspective).

A lot of people typically give up something for Lent.  Some years I try to give things up, but some years I instead try to take something on that I don’t normally do.  Part of it is with the intention of reflecting on myself and where I need growth (of fasting) in my life, but also what are things that can keep me prayerful by doing (or not doing) those things.  This year I have decided to do a little of both, hoping to improve my physical health along with my spiritual health.  I have been doing really well with keeping up with the gym, working out 4-5 days per week.  It’s not necessary something new to take on, but it is a challenge to maintain this momentum, especially as life is starting to get really busy again. In addition to that, I have decided to refrain from sweets and desserts – no ice cream, cookies, chocolate or candy bars from vending machines.  Eating sweets isn’t necessary something I do every day, but it is something that I will take advantage of at certain restaurants.  Bethany is also giving up the sweet craze as well.

LightsCameraFaith One last thing, Bethany and I are going to do some faith sharing through film, watching movies based on the scripture readings for the Sundays of Lent.  The movies come from a book called “Lights, Camera, Faith“, which is a book that uses recent and popular movies as another way of looking at scripture readings.  If you’re a movie buff at all, and would like to see how God can work through media, I invite you to try this out. The first movie for this Sunday is Quiz Show.  After watching the movie, I will offer my thoughts and reflections through the blog. If you’re interested, I would invite you to do the same, either by responding to my posts or perhaps we could set up a discussion board somewhere.  Let me know if you’d be interesting in learning more, of if there’s something I can do to help you get started.