Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
			ASH WEDNESDAY	FEBRUARY 18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	MARCH 1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
PALM SUNDAY	29	30	31	HOLY THURSDAY	GOOD FRIDAY	EASTER VIGIL
EASTER

LENT AND CHOCOLATE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER!

For countless people — both Catholic and non-Catholic — Lent has somehow become known as the time of year for giving up chocolate. Why? Well, the truth is, nobody really seems to know for sure, but unless a Gnostic gospel according to Willy Wonka is discovered in a cave somewhere we’re pretty sure that simply removing all cocoa-related products from your diet doesn’t necessarily deepen your spiritual life.

And Jesus told his disciples and several faithful Oompa Loompas who were among them to gather up the scraps in baskets…” ?!?!

In order to rescue Lent from the chocolate-abstinence zombie that lives inside many of us, Busted Halo® decided to approach the season from a completely different perspective and actually give chocolate away to our readers during Lent.

Fast, Pray, Give

Traditionally, Lent was intended as a time for personal conversion leading up to Easter, during which Christians practiced the spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving. The belief is that our consistent participation in these practices — like exercise we do for our physical health — is a form of purification that improves our spiritual wellbeing by stripping away all that is unnecessary and by becoming more mindful of our ultimate dependence on God in our lives.

But instead of chocolate, alcohol or tobacco, what if people thought of fasting, prayer and almsgiving in a broader context? What if those disciplines involved practices like reducing your dependence on electronic devices for 24 hours (fast); contemplating the 1.6 billion people in the world who have no access to electricity for a few moments (pray); and spending the extra time you’ve saved on personal interaction with someone important to you (give)? Or what if people reduced their carbon footprint for a day by using less energy (fast); then reflected for two minutes on the magnificent gift our natural environment is (pray); and finally placed $1 in a bowl they’ve set aside to collect money to be given away to a favorite charity — perhaps one that plants trees — at the end of Lent (give).

These are just two examples of the dozens of exercises in our Fast, Pray, Give Calendar that will help readers enter into the traditional spiritual disciplines of the Lenten season every day in ways that are practical, doable and relevant to their daily lives. Beginning Wednesday February 17, our Fast, Pray, Give Calendar will feature a new Daily Jolt of contemplation/inspiration every day and couple it with simple, practical suggestions for how to carry out the ancient Lenten spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving that day.

Failure is not an option…

The idea isn’t to be perfect but to continue on our path — despite our screw-ups — in a way that builds toward Easter Sunday. Like any type of exercise, if this plan of action is followed with any sort of consistency there should be a cumulative effect — in this case, of a deepening spiritual awareness and renewal.

Worried that you won’t be able to follow through on what you’ve “given up” this year? Trust us, we’ve designed a Lenten plan that you can’t fail.  Every day features a new set of Fast, Pray, Give suggestions, so if you slip up one day, don’t give up; simply pick up again the next day with a new Fast, Pray, Give. You can even share any struggles you might be having at our “Slip Support Station” on BustedHalo’s Facebook page.

A little incentive to get you started…

Of course, everyone needs a little help or encouragement now and then, so in addition to our Facebook “Slip Support Station” we’ll be offering three different levels of “Lent Incentives” (i.e. prizes):

• Daily (Busted Halo M&Ms, Swedish Fish, the current issue of Magnificat with the Lenten Companion, books, CDs, DVDs)
• Weekly (more valuable “mystery” prizes you guess at, based on clues), and our
• Ultimate Lent Incentive Grand Prize (an Easter basket stocked with a customized Flip Video Camera as well as Busted Halo M&Ms, Swedish Fish, and an assortment of books from our Halo store.)

Every day, readers will be given a clue describing the Weekly Prize. Readers can send in one guess each day. Each guess will enter them into the random drawings for both that day’s Daily Prize and the Easter basket stocked with a customized Flip Video Camera grand prize. If you guess correctly you will be entered into that Monday’s random drawing for the Weekly Prize. (If none of the entries in a given week have guessed the Weekly Prize correctly, the winner will be chosen from a random drawing of all that week’s entries.)

Entries must be accompanied by both email and snail mail addresses (don’t worry, this info won’t be given out to anyone, it just makes it easier to track contestants and winners). The Easter basket stocked with a customized Flip Video Camera Grand Prize will be awarded on April 4 in a random drawing from all eligible entries received during Lent. (See contest rules here.)

All you need to be eligible is come back to our calendar each day, open that day’s new link and follow the instructions on how to enter in the drawing. It’s easy; you can enter as often as once a day (and up your chances of winning). Winners will be chosen within 24 hours and notified.

Our weekly prize winner for week one is Dana Thomson of Archbald, PA. The correct answer was a wooden cross blessed by Pope Benedict.

Our weekly prize winner for week two is Kathy Boehm of Nashville, TN. The correct answer was a copy of My Life With the Saints, by Fr. Jim Martin, SJ.

Our weekly prize winner for week three is Chris Kielczewski of Port Jervis, NY. The correct answer was a Beautiful Mess CD by Bill McGarvey and the Good Thieves.

You can see a list of winners so far here.

Want to add a FastPrayGive/Daily Jolt widget to your site?
Email here (say widget in the subject) and we’ll set you up.