Here comes Lent, with all the usual trappings: ashes (March 5), penance, prayers and the assorted other efforts Christians of all stripes make during this season leading up to Holy Week and the glory of Easter.

In Chicago, as I’ve learned over more then 30 years here, Lent also means paczki, a sort of jelly donut on steroids—like the couple of boxes of them I picked up on the way to work today.

In the days before Ash Wednesday, it’s acceptable—required, even—to gorge yourself on paczki in preparation for the 40 days of famine to follow. A Polish Mardi Gras, apparently.

That sense of self-imposed deprivation is what defines Lent for many people, for at least the last couple of generations.

OK, it’s Lent. What can I give up? Candy, certainly. Television? Perhaps. Others of you might target cigarettes or booze.

All this is rooted in Lent’s tradition of fasting and abstinence, a good way to enter into the spirit of penance that flows through the season.

Truth be told, though, giving up candy or smoking or beer is hardly the only way to honor the spirit of the sacrificial season. Another is service. Instead of giving up, let’s give.

That’s the sense behind some developing Lenten traditions such as Operation Rice Bowl and the Holy Childhood Association. Both are aimed at sharing resources of those who have much with those who have less.

Operation Rice Bowl supports Catholic Relief Services development efforts in more than 40 countries throughout the world as well as funding Chicago-area hunger programs. Operation Rice Bowl encourages parishes and schools, in the words of Cardinal George, “to pray; … to fast in solidarity with those who hunger; learn about our family in the developing world; and give to those in need.”

If your parish or school participates, that’s great. If you want to begin an Operation Rice Bowl project for Lent, call the archdiocesan Office for Peace and Justice, (312) 751-8367. It’s not too late.

The story behind the Holy Childhood Association is much the same. This venerable organization, a pontifical mission society since 1926, works to encourage American children to donate small amounts that can relieve great suffering in mission fields around the world. The efforts can be tiny; the results surprising: 50 cents buys four glasses of milk for children in Chile; $1 buys enough Vitamin A to keep 50 children in Indonesia safe from blindness and much, much more.

For information on HCA, call the archdiocesan Missions Office, (312) 382-3322 or visit www.worldmissions-catholicchurch.org/hca

And, as long as we’re talking about sharing, a comment is in order.

A column in the last issue of The Catholic New World told the story of efforts by UNICEF, the U.N. program which works around the world to help the medical needs, the living conditions and health concerns of children in Third World countries. The column, written by a staff member of the Illinois Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in the state, drew some harsh criticism because of UNICEF’s loose connections with other U.N. programs which fund population control efforts and may encourage abortions.

The problem is not a black or white one, and we Catholics don’t always do gray well.

In recent years, the Vatican withdrew its “symbolic” ($2,000) contribution to UNICEF to protest the group’s slow slide toward population-control policies. That said, UNICEF does—in the words of a major national pro-life organization—“wonderful” work in areas of helping with poverty, health and living conditions and church-connected groups continue to work with it in those areas.

That collaboration has the acknowledgement of the Holy See, but if UNICEF’s role degrades, that collaboration will change.

In the meantime, the pile of paczkis by the coffee will disappear fast and I want one before Lent takes them all away.

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