Well, they weren’t pancakes, but I suppose French toast was close enough. Eggs, butter, sugar, and milk were at one time prohibited during Lent, so Pancake Day, the feast day also called Shrove Tuesday, Carnival, or Mardi Gras, was a way of using up the leftover ingredients. The French toast I made, or “pancakes,” were ultra-rich, made from three-day old butter-laden brioche. The feast before the fast!
God of all seasons, God of both feasting and fasting, you guide us through the letting goes and the new beginnings of our lives. We confess to you our weakness in doing this fully, and we ask that we can let go of all impediments to our journey toward “life and life more abundantly” so that we can begin anew in grace. May we never lose hope in the eternal spring that you have promised to all of creation in a “new heaven and a new earth.” Amen
~Richard Rohr
Bread for the Journey 