To Keep A True Lent

To Keep A True Lent

Poem by Robert Herrick, a meditation on how to keep a true Lent, not just following the letter of the law, but the spirit.

Is this a Fast, to keep
The larder lean,
And clean,
From fat of veals and sheep?

Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?

Is it to fast an hour,
Or rag'd to go
Or show
A downcast look or sour?

No; 'tis a Fast to dole
Thy sheaf or wheat
And meat,
Unto the hungry soul.

It is to fast from strife.
From old debate,
And hate;
To circumcise thy life.

To show a heart grief-rent,
To starve thy sin,
Not bin;
And that's to keep thy Lent.

— Robert Herrick

Prayer Source: Holy Lent by Eileen O'Callaghan, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1975

Shamelessly ripped off from: CatholicCulture.org.

How will you keep your Lent this year?