Giving up white flour and refined sugar for Lent hasn’t been that rough, though I am reminded daily of just how frequently those two ingredients appear in almost everything desirable. One nice re-discovery: millet bread (it contains millet and brown rice flour). You can find it in the freezer case of most whole foods stores. I toast in a few smidges of organic butter and find it sinfully delicious.

Deepening Lent for me this year is Beliefnet.com’s interactive Lenten calendar (click here and look for its headline on our Catholic page). It gives you daily assignments from speaking warmly to a homeless person to praying for others.