First Sunday in Lent A
When I was at Clergy Conference this past week, Archdeacon Gail Winslow was talking about a week-long fast he did years ago with Father Adam Trambley. I have read about people doing week long fasts, typically with week long silent retreats, it seems like a bit crazy. To not eat or talk for a whole week? One on its own seems bad enough. But Archdeacon Gail said that it wasn't too bad, eventually your body moves past the hunger pains and into detoxification mode. The problem then, he said, is that you stink. All the gunk your body has stored up inside of you gets thrown out and he said he felt like he needed to shower every couple of hours. I myself have never fasted that long. I did the 30-hour famine as a teenager. One year for Lent, I fasted on Wednesday and Fridays. But the idea of a week long fast and cleaning out the body is interesting. We do tend to store up, both inside of us and around us, junk we think we need or wish we could us...