After 11 months, what is there left to give up this Lent?
People in Cambridge, Md., pray in their cars on Easter April 12, 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS photo/Joshua Roberts, Reuters)
By Mark Pattison
• Catholic News Service • Posted February 12, 2021
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Since childhood, the typical U.S. Catholic’s response to Lent is giving up, as in “What are you giving up for Lent?”
If you haven’t been keeping track, Catholics in the United States and worldwide — just about everyone, really — have been giving up a lot since the coronavirus pandemic struck 11 months ago, with no clearly defined end in sight. You would need the fingers on both hands to name some of the things that have been lost, not to mention nearly a half-million lives lost in the U.S. alone.