Some advice for Lent: Be a kind person!
Fr. James Martin, the Jesuit priest, author and editor at large at America magazine, suggests that instead of giving something up for Lent to do something positive instead.
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And he gets very specific in an article titled “This Lent, don’t be a jerk.”
What is something positive? “How about this,” Martin writes. “Be kind. And let me suggest a few ways to do that.”
- First: “Give people the benefit of the doubt.”
- Second: “Honor the absent. Be kind when you’re talking about people who aren’t there.”
- Finally: “Don’t be a jerk.”
“If you feel you’re moving into that territory, ask yourself a simple question, ‘Am I being a jerk?’ If you’re somehow unable to discern that, the look on other people’s faces will tell you.So for Lent, some advice: Be a kind person!”
You can read the full article here. You might also want to listen to Martin’s podcast “The Examen.”
Image above is © Thongchai Piwanna | Dreamstime.com
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