John Smith, a Protestant, moved into a large Catholic neighbourhood. On the first Friday of Lent, John was outside grilling a big juicy steak on his barbecue. Meanwhile, his neighbours were eating cold tuna for supper. This continued each Friday during Lent.

On the last Friday of Lent the local families came together and decided that something had to be done about John, as he was tempting them to eat meat each Friday during Lent and they couldn’t take it anymore.

They decided to try and convert him to Catholicism. They were thrilled when he decided he would become a Catholic. They took him to church and the priest sprinkled some holy water over him and said, “You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist and now you are a Catholic”. Now that their biggest Lent temptation was resolved, the local families were relieved.

Next year’s Lent soon rolled around. The first Friday of Lent came and at dinner time when the neighbourhood was settling down to their fish dinners there was a wafting smell of steak cooking on a barbecue. The families nearby could not believe their noses! What was going on? They called each other up and decided to meet over in John’s yard to see if he had forgotten it was Lent.

The group arrived just in time to see John standing over his grill with a small jug of water. He was pouring small droplets over his steak on the grill and saying, “You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, and now you are a fish.”

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