Switching coffee cups.
I’ve noticed, here in the middle of winter, that it’s hard for my “big red” coffee cup to hold its heat for very long. Coffee gets cold, no matter how hot I pre-heat the cup.
I’m switching, therefore, as an experiment,
to the simple white slightly-taller-than-a-teacup coffee cup. It has a smaller radius. It’s a smaller cup. But its height, I think may be an advantage, helping it to keep the coffee hot.
We’ll see. I may or may not report back on this one. Although, I have a feeling I will.
Another solution may likely be to go the route of the ole thermos. Again, the main goal being to keep this coffee hot. It seems to get too cold too quickly. If I go with the thermos—it doesn’t have to be a huge one, it can be a smaller one—I’ll also be able to go with the smaller coffee/teacups. Why does this matter? By going with the smallest size cups, I maximize the ratio of hot sips to total sips. Even if I have to refill the little cup several—three, four times, those sips’ll be as hot as I can conceivably hope for. [takes last sip of coffee] Instead of this forlorn, lukewarm, waning memory of warmer times.
1/29/2021
My Dear Parish,
Have you ever wondered why we speak of the forty days of Lent on the one hand, but when we look at the calendar it never quite adds up to forty? Maybe you haven’t, but I have. These, I guess are some of the minor things pastors ponder to themselves.
If Ash Wednesday is supposed to be the start of Lent, and Lent goes until Easter Sunday, then how come, when you count it always adds up to 46 or 47 depending on whether you count easter Sunday itself. But if it’s always 46 or 47, then why do we always speak of the forty days of Lent?
There are a few ways out of this conundrum.
1) You could exclude counting Sundays and you’d end up with forty. Then you’d be left wondering whether there is any penance still required on those Sundays which have been excluded from the count.
2) You could begin the count on the Sunday after Ash Wednesday and end it on Holy Thursday. To do this would require grandfathering the three days after Ash Wednesday into the forty-day count as well as ending Lent on Holy Thursday, which is the beginning of the Paschal Triduum, that is, the three holiest Days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Still, here Lent would end during Holy Week and we’d be left to wonder about the penitential nature those remaining three days.
3) Or, you could understand the forty days to have meaning that is more spiritually symbolic than chronologically exact. The forty days are intended to unite is with the penance Jesus did while enduring the temptations of the devil. His forty days also recalled the forty years the Chosen People suffered for their sins, wandering in the dessert. This way the exact number of days becomes less important than the reality of the need to do penance.
You can count the days how you like—it’s not a sin to do it one way and not another. I prefer to count the days this third way. Counting the days and weeks in this more symbolic manner leads me to point out the significance of this coming Sunday.
This Sunday used to be called “Septuagesima Sunday,” from the Latin word meaning seventy (Lent, in Latin is Quadragesima, the word for forty). If you count seventy days from this Sunday you end up on the Octave Day of Easter. All this counting is making me dizzy.
The point is, it’s time to start to get ready for Lent. I’ll be speaking more about this in the coming weeks. But in the meantime one thing you can do, for sure, is get to confession. That’s always the best way to prepare.
With paternal affection,
Fr. Drew
