St. Patrick\'s Day

I've always found it a bit ironic that St. Patrick's Day occurs during Lent. Some Catholics (not all) typically forgo some indulgence as a form of discipline and self denial in the 40 days prior to Easter. And some Catholics (not all) create an excuse to allow this holiday of sorts to be an exception to Lent. It can be a further disappointment when St. Patrick's Day happens to coincide with one of the Fridays in Lent - which in NO uncertain terms are deemed as days of fasting and abstinence. Luckily this year that did not happen.

One such season where this it did occur was in the later half of my university years. By chance the Bishop granted dispensation for that Friday in Lent. One could make up their fasting on their own, but essentially everyone could interpret this as a "free ticket". Not considering how silly this may sound to a non-Catholic, I casually mentioned this to my colleagues waiting for lecture to start one morning. Perhaps I added a bit of enthusiasm, I don't know, but I will never forget uttering the sentence that began with: "The Bishop says...". And they didn't allow me to forget it either.

Till the end of the semester, the response to anything I said would always begin with: "Don't worry, the Bishop says it's okay" (or something to that effect). ... It's fine, they weren't really mocking my religion (my Hindu buddies would never do that). Honestly, I thought it was pretty funny too, even though it got on my nerves sometimes.

Anyways, while many surrender their attention to a pint of Killian's, wearing green or perhaps kissing the Blarney Stone - on St. Patrick's Day I am left to ponder what the Bishop might say.

Posted in: Funny, Religion, Random,

2 Comments:

• stick on March 17, 2010 ~ 09:21 PM

  Gah. I can't think of very many things that I want to do less than kiss the Blarney Stone. Even on St. Patrick's Day.

• Mahesh on March 17, 2010 ~ 11:23 PM

  sorry… I think I was one of the offenders.