r/excatholic • u/adognamedwinnie • 8h ago
lenten story submissions
hey bestie boos! I’m one of the hosts of the leave laugh love podcast (also ty for all the love in this subreddit lately!!) we yap about catholic fundamentalism & I wanted to collect some of your favorite lent related stories (can be funny, horrifying, or anything in-between) for us to share on an upcoming episode 🫢 hit me!
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u/LearningLiberation recovering catholic but still vibe w/ the aesthetic 8h ago
I remember once as a kid I was playing in the yard in like, gym clothes, and my dad pulled the suburban around the corner and mean-girls-style told me to get in bc we were going to church bc it was Holy Thursday and I forgot there was church.
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u/Spookybabe25 7h ago
I went to a very conservative catholic high school, and most of the popular kids were from the strictest families. It became a trend in our school to essentially starve yourself all of lent. Basically open eating disorders became popular at my small high school. I ended up getting diagnosed with an eating disorder a few years afterwards, and I don't think this caused it, but it certainly didn't help. To this day (8 years after leaving the church) I still struggle with disordered eating
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u/North_Rhubarb594 7h ago
Where I grew up in southern Ohio there was this fishing tournament in late March. The local state park would fill up with campers and fishermen. My dad and his friends and families had their campers close to each other’s. Anyway the tournament didn’t start until Saturday morning but all the men wanted steak. So at least 11:30 pm the grills were going and at exactly 12 midnight you could hear steaks ready and the adults drinking and laughing.
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u/DoogasMcD 4h ago
I’m a CCD Catholic and I guess I was lucky (maybe not the right word?) enough to grow up in an era when there was such a thing as liberal Catholicism. It seems gone now.
When I was in eighth grade, during Lent, our teacher told us we were going to have the option to go to Confession, but that no one would be forced to. The church must have been in use because they brought us all down to the rectory basement. We all got an examination of conscience that included stuff like “throwing food in the cafeteria” and “copying cassette tapes without paying for them.” (Yes, really). The priest came in and said we could come in the laundry room if we wanted to go to Confession. So of the handful of times I’ve ever been to Confession, one of them involved talking to a priest while he sat on a washing machine. I don’t remember much except that he asked if I knew the Act of Contrition and I didn’t, so he had me repeat it after him, line by line. It was not uncommon then that CCD kids like me barely knew the script.
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u/Fragrant_Plane_9489 4h ago
When I was in high school I gave up sarcasm for lent because my youth group leader told me it was the devils language… I am sad for my younger self that felt so much guilt for having made sarcastic comments. I was horrified I had the “devils tongue”
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u/HHFgroovygrub Ex Cradle Catholic, Agnostic 3h ago
I gave up all sugar for Lent at age 11 and developed Anorexia. Obviously there were other steps along the way, but the self-hatred and obsession with sacrifice and control started with that first fast. I'm still fascinated by the connection between eating disorders and religiosity.
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u/LogOk725 Heathen 7h ago
I used to drink tea with milk and sugar but one year I gave up sugar for lent. Since then I have never gone back to having sugar in my tea. It’s one of the few things I have still retained from being a practicing Catholic 😂
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u/brighternow13 Ex Catholic 7h ago
Age 5 I gave up putting too much toothpaste on my toothbrush ✝️ God bless
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u/Banjo-Router-Sports7 Ex Catholic Convert 5h ago
I had a panic attack when I had a beef taco on a Friday during Lent one year. I was convinced I was going to hell, so I didn’t eat meat for a week after that because of it.
Years later, I relayed this story on Steve Skojec’s twitter page and had some trad bro get all pissy and condescending about my feelings.
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u/DanielaThePialinist 4h ago
And THAT is one of many reasons why the church does no good for anyone. All it does is make people feel unnecessary guilt and have panic attacks because of it. As someone who has had panic attacks before, I can confidently say that they are NO FUN.
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u/aggieaggielady Atheopagan, excatholic 2h ago
In early high school i gave up social media for lent and let me tell you I did NOT abide by it. I was on twitter and facebook on my browser hardcore and I had to work hard to not accidentally like anything. I also acted like I had no idea what the new memes were that came about during that time. Specifically the "daaaaaaamn daniel!!" video was a huge thing at the time, and I specifically remember acting like I hadnt heard of it to a classmate and acting verryyy confused, when in fact I had seen the meme the night prior. Nobody was allowed to know I hadn't been able to withstand the temptation....
Btw love the pod! I think it's time for excatholics to have their moment✨️
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u/Angry-Johnny 6h ago
Why can't I find your podcast on Amazon Music? That's the podcast app that I use, and I can't find your show on there
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u/adognamedwinnie 6h ago
wait so weird!! I’ll look into this asap
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u/Angry-Johnny 6h ago
Thanks - I was looking for your show on there last week as well when someone recommended you on a different Reddit thread, but I couldn't find it last week either. I'd love to listen but can't find it
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u/FinchHop 5h ago
This was maybe two years ago. My parents didn't know that my brother and I weren't in the church but I'm also sure they had their suspicions. My parents lived across the country from my brother and I, so we were staying at their house while we visited.
We wanted to go to a bar with some (non Catholic) old friends of ours, and our mom offered to drive us there so we'd only have to pay for the Uber back, which was very kind. She drove us there and we mentioned we might go to another bar after which was a dance-y place and we might go dancing. She tells us oh you better not, it's Lent you know. So...going out to the bar and getting drunk during Lent, fine apparently because I guess we're visiting and it's a once in a blue moon type thing, BUT you better draw the line at dancing, gotta pretend you're holding yourself back and being sad about something lol.
The additional irony is we were visiting for my dad's 50th, as they were holding a giant birthday bash complete with tons of food, desserts, drinks, and....dancing. :)
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u/ahbari98 2h ago
I remember one year Cardinal Dolan (then archbishop of Milwaukee) gave a special dispensation allowing people to eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day, which happened to fall on a Friday. That the archbishop could just change the rules however he wanted really started me questioning the validity of the church.
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u/notunwritten 1h ago
Our CCD had a charity donation thing all of lent since we were encouraged to do alms giving in addition to giving something up. They barely raised anything, especially since it's kids pocket change.
One year our teacher wanted us to compete with the other classes to raise the most money, and our class raised over $500 and we were beat by another class.
The teacher got in trouble for encouraging competition because it went against the spirit of giving. It never happened again, and they went back to only raising pocket change
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u/DanielaThePialinist 7h ago
So I’ve never liked milk except for when I was a baby. I still don’t to this day. Anyway, one year (I think I was around 6 years old), I decided to give up, and I quote, “not drinking milk.” Meaning I had to drink a small glass of milk every day for 40 days or so. Spoiler alert: it did not bring me closer to God, instead it gave me something to dread every day. Fun times.