A modern-day demonstration that faith is a gift that keeps on giving, the Omaha World-Herald reports annual fish fries “flourish in economic chill.”
Aiming to feed multitudes, organizers hope to raise money for charitable projects. The paper said: 
Good food gets ‘em in the door,and a good cause doesn’t hurt.

Catholic News Service reports that during his annual message marking Lent, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony “told Catholics that the country’s economic downturn has caused many people to already experience the season of Lent,” having begun in 2007 when people began losing their jobs.
In previous years, “when life and our financial security were far more predictable,” [...]

Check out this Lentian “Rant,” calling for a leaner-meaner government:
In periods of downsizing and restructuring, companies often become leaner and more efficient. If not, they tend to go out of business. One could look at it as a sort of “fasting” period. Government, however, continues to grow in good economies and bad.
Perhaps if government learned [...]

For those who have already lost a lot this year, finding something to sacrifice this Lent might be more of a challenge.
But for some, these tough times are a lesson unto themselves, providing instruction to the faithful that is far more effective than giving up chocolate, booze or Twitter.

”It refocuses one’s objectives and beliefs, really,” [...]