Theme - A Pause in Lent 2012

It's been generally agreed that coming up with ideas for six Sunday/Mondays in a row can be quite a struggle for the Pause in Lent, so those who have left comments have all been in favour of a loose theme to guide our thoughts.

I want us to be very relaxed about this - interpret the theme as you like, and use the inspiration words as you want - maybe you want to take one word and write about it for the whole of Lent, or maybe you'd prefer to look at many different words. And here are the words, suggested by Ang of Tracing Rainbows:

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Valour
Generosity
Liberality
Diligence
Patience
Kindness
Humility

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Do you recognise them? If you do, you might realise why they go, in my mind at least, with Charley Harper's Cool Cardinal, pictured above the list! (See my sidebar for more Charley Harper details.)

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Yes, no doubt most of you got it quicker than I would have - Ang sent me a list of the Cardinal Virtues (or, and this gets complicated, the four cardinal virtues plus three theological virtues - I'm not got to quibble)! Here are the definitions Ang found:

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Valour: Pursuit of Knowledge
Generosity: Pursuit of Charity
Liberality: Pursuit of Will
Diligence: Pursuit of Ethics
Patience: Pursuit of Peace
Kindness: Pursuit of Love
Humility: Pursuit of Modesty

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As Protestants, Ang and I have never really looked much into this list before, and some of them sound kind of complicated, nay, confusing... What are we going to make of them? Well, our Catholic friends may be able to help us out - I'm sure glad you're with us, friends. But the really important thing is that they should give us some kind of prompt for spiritual exploration over the next six weeks - as Yoli, over at Apron Senorita, says: "The goal of every Christian is to leave Lent a stronger and more vital person of faith than when we entered." I'm really looking forward to sharing Lent with you, friends old and new.