So, how’s your fasting going so far? Any better than your New Year’s Resolutions of a month ago? Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) just passed a few days ago. If you have no idea of what I’m talking about, let me help: Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday in the Western Christian calendar, which begins the season of Lent. In the early days of Christianity, Lent was a time of preparation for new converts. After Lent, on Easter Sunday, the new converts were baptized. Some churches still follow that practice.
Shrove Tuesday, according to Britannica, is “… the final day before the austerity of the Lenten fast, Shrove Tuesday has many customs pertaining to food—in particular, sweet foods containing eggs, sugar, and fat, which were commonly forbidden during Lent and would otherwise go to waste.”
Some churches have Pancake Dinners on Shrove Tuesday, thus following the tradition of using up eggs, sugar, and fat before Lenten fasting begins. The extreme of that practice is the Mardi Gras, as can be found in New Orleans and other cities, where carnivals and wild celebrations are rampant.
Fasting, the practice of denying the body of excesses, is a practice to focus one’s physical life toward spiritual matters, as a means of drawing closer to God (TRWV, The Revised Willis Version). Many United Methodist Churches, as well as Episcopal congregations, emphasize fasting as a Spiritual Discipline, and it is one that is encouraged during Lent.
On a whimsical note, a friend of mine grew up in Kansas. He told me of an amusing practice his community had for Shrove Tuesday to launch Lent. He said a Methodist church there held annual dinners on Groundhog Day, serving what they called “Groundhog (ground hog) Sandwiches.” The dinners included sausage biscuits, pancakes, coffee, Hot Chocolate, and other dishes.
But I digress — fasting and self-denial during Lent can be taken to unreasonable extremes. The point of a spiritual discipline is not to see how extreme one can be in a discipline, nor to make it an exhibition of one’s spiritual excellence. Such has been a problem throughout the history of humanity. Jesus noticed the practice publicly displayed. He condemned the Pharisee (who) stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. (Luke 18:11 Common English Bible).
©Copyright Willis H. Moore 2026
Glad you are back with you Fridays with Willis. Hope you and Jane are well