I posted this last year , but it’s so good I wanted to put it up again. A few years ago a friend of mine sent me these lyrics, which can be sung to the tune of “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things.”
Sackcloth and ashes and days without eating,
Mortification and wailing and weeping,
A hair shirt that scratches, a nettle that stings—
These are a few of my favorite things!
Penitence, flagellants, memento mori ,
Spending nights sleeping on rocks in a quarry,
The sound of a cloaked solemn cantor who sings—
These are still more of my favorite things!
Tossing and turning and yearning, I’m spurning!
Passions aflame like an ember-day burning,
Corpus and carnis and wild drunken flings—
Forsaken are they for my favorite things!
When it’s Christmas,
When the tree’s lit,
When the cards are sent . . .
I simply remember my favorite things—
And then I can’t waaaaaaaaait ‘til Lent!
