It's month 3 on my Year of Faiths adventures, and I've decided to dedicate this month to monasticism. Because of the area in which we live, most spiritual orders are Catholic, so I'm thinking of this month as a Catholic/monastic hybrid.
To kick it off, I began the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, at a 6:45am Mass, with ashes smeared upon my forehead after a morning of deep reflection and prayer.
My plan for this month is to:
1) Embrace Lent - giving up candy and sweets, going vegetarian on Fridays (and attending the fish fry at the local parish, which is already a tradition), and spending more time in prayer and at a prayer chapel
2) Do the powerful Examen of Ignatius twice each day
3) Participating in Mass and having dinner at a local monastery with the "Little Brothers of the Lamb" who I met HERE
4) Visiting the home of Thomas Merton at Gethsemani in Kentucky (road trip with the kids!)
5) Reading these books (Resisting Happiness was a free gift from the parish on Ash Wednesday), along with scripture
