Lake County Ohio Weal

Traditionally in the Christian calendar, Lent has been a time of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus recommends that we do these things in secret for God rather than publicly for our self-glorification before others.  Why is fasting important, and how does it relate to the practices of prayer and almsgiving?  In an article which I wrote for the Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom blog , published on March 11, 2011, I focus upon the use of time as the key variable. We fast from certain things (less time spent in food preparation and eating) so that we can spend more time in the things that matter, namely love of God (prayer) and love of neighbor (almsgiving). With that rational in mind, I argue that today we should concentrate on fasting from television. The original article can still be accessed here: Television, Time Use, Lent and the Divine Office  

  Television: capturing America's attention at prime time and beyond. The ATUS is a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey that collects information about how people spend their time, along with individual and household characteristics useful in understanding how people use their time.1 In the core part of the survey, participants retrospectively report the activities they did on the previous day, when and for how long they did them, where they were, and who else was in the room with them or accompanied them during the activities. Using this information, BLS produces estimates of average time use for the civilian noninstitutional population ages 15 and older and various subpopulations. U.S. daily TV and digital viewing time 2024 | Statista