Back in the late 1990’s, Fr. Arnold Weber gave a Homily urging us to make Lent different than all the other days of the year. He suggested we add something to Lent rather than give up something for Lent. Maybe consider a different activity or daily regimen, using the example of his childhood breakfast switching from eggs and sausage to pancakes. Further, he suggested the translation of “Lenten” was “lengthen”, signifying the lengthening of day light hours as we slowly come out of winter. It really hit home with me and, to coin a word HNOJ’s number 1 “C” and “E” pinch hitter- Fr. Habbinger often used, “eastered” within me for the days following that specific Homily. Since changing from Instant Breakfast to Slim Fast didn’t seem to have the same effect as Fr. Arnold’s breakfast example, I needed a new plan.
It was at a time of year where bad weather can affect the route home and local area “garage logicians” are urged to MAKE A MOVE, by talk-radio host Joe Soucheray. Coincidentally it was also concurrent with a recent commitment I had made to pray a daily Rosary at 70 mph on the way down the freeway, every day in route to the office. So I elected to “lengthen” the route to the office by taking back roads and alternate routes, just during Lent. There was a dramatic drop in receiving obscene gestures as I drove down Co. Rd #9 to Broadway and on into downtown Minneapolis. I used to park over where the Viking tailgaters used to set up before games and discovered an even better secondary route on the old River Road that snaked behind all the buildings along the Mississippi and picked up Broadway again away from all the congestion of stop lights and the chaos of the inner city.
The new route only added about ten minutes to my drive, but I’ll bet it added ten years to my life. There was much less stress, a higher quality Rosary and a near religious eye opening of seeing humanity instead of sound-reduction retaining walls lining the freeways. It also provided a much better working knowledge of the cities within the big city and interesting side streets to apply to those “make a move” days. The one thing that really stood out for me was the incredible number of churches there are in the metro area between HNOJ and down town Minneapolis. Try something new this Lenten Season. Good luck!