Christ and the chocolaterie

A bit breezy today - Please don't be upset...

For Lent, we have begun using "Christ and the Chocolaterie", by Hilary Brand. It is a study guide to the movie "Chocolat" and picks up many Lenten themes. In my spirit of Lent, we are going slow and not pushing ourselves. We are taking two weeks just to watch it, and then we'll gradually work our way through the text.

The movie is set in Pre-Vatican 2 France, a bastion of conservative Catholicism. Fasting is to be practice hard and fast. To give into temptation is a sin. We must suffer for Christ. etc etc.
The whole community lives a penetential 6 weeks before Easter comes, and are "Free again".

Surely this is to miss the point. To be fruitful, fasting should be part of the re-orientation process, which I believe is what Lent is all about. (As in "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel...). We should (In an ideal world) each fast from what binds us, to drop its attachment, and see its power over us. But we are so self indulged that any sort of moderation - whether it be in eating, drinking, exercise, technology, sex - seems foreign to us.
Painful.
Perhaps even dangerous.

And I include myself here. I don't WANT to fast. Or give anything up. I like to eat and drink. And be merry. But I love God more. And if I am serious about entering into God's mystery, then history shows (and my limited, flawed experience tells me), fasting is helpful

On another note, the Irish Jesuits rock. Pray as You Go is an awesome site. Daily reflective mediations on the Gospel of the Day, one for each day of Lent.
I have been using the End of the Day prayer each night before sleep. It is fab