New Believers Of God

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The month of February meant a lot of things to me.

It was the month I turned twelve, the month of Valentine's Day, and the month Pope Francis became head of the Catholic church. However, it was also the month Lent began.

I attended mass with my Mom after school for ash Wednesday. There, the whole church was decorated purple, symbolizing the acts of repentance and solemnity. Up at the front, purple candles surrounded the altar. On the ceiling, the large cross had a purple cloth over it. Father Stanley, who distributed the ashes, was even wearing a purple vestment.

I lifted my bangs as he left me with a smudge of black powder on my forehead.

"Repent and believe in the gospel." he said after finishing.

I had never really liked doing this. Usually, as soon as I got home, I would wipe the ashes off right away, much to my Mom's dismay. I didn't get why we had to keep them there.

With Lent, there came a lot of other challenges as well. First and foremost, on every Friday until Easter we weren't allowed to eat meat. Forty days to be exact. For a kid, that seemed like a pretty long time. I didn't necessarily mind doing it, but it was easy to forget if you weren't paying attention. There were many instances in the past when I would do so by accident and not realize until after. Definitely a tall order to follow. Although according to my Dad, there was once a point where we couldn't eat meant on any Friday at all, so it could have been worse.

In addition, there was also the task of giving something up during that time as well.

At Hangin' In that week, it served as a topic between me, the guys, and Hunter.

"So," he said, "What have you decided on?"

Of course, we all said the usual stuff you would expect us to choose.

"Candy." I said.

"Xbox." said Shane.

"Instagram." said Victor.

"Soda." said Ethan.

"Movies." said Daryl.

"Good choices."

At CCD, we also discussed it as well.

On the classroom's blackboard, Ms. Crane hung up a paper tree before handing out matching paper leaves to each of us.

"What I would like you to do is write down the item you plan to give up," she said, "Then come paste it on the tree."

As I went to add mine, Holly ended up right beside me once again.

"What are you giving up?" I asked her.

"Nothing." she answered.

That is not what I expected to hear, especially from her.

"Nothing?" I said, confused.

"Yeah." she said back "Nothing."

"So you're not giving anything up?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't believe I have to."

Sure enough, that's exactly what she had written on her leaf.

"I don't understand."

"Cole, you don't have to give something up you know. There's lots of other things you can do instead."

"Like what?"

"Like doing a good deed. I think that's way more meaningful. Besides, I've never been any good at giving things up."

As she went back to her seat, I approached Ms. Crane.

"Is she allowed to do that?" I asked her.

"Of course." she answered, "There's nothing wrong with that."

Thus, the season of Lent began.