Wow. All this saint stuff sure makes us hungry. Fortunately we have a Celebrity Chef on staff to assist with all your culinary needs. Maria Virginia Ross typically shares a recipe -- and some saintly insights -- on the Saturdays of Lent. You can find her posts on our Facebook page (you HAVE liked the Lent Madness Facebook page, right?). If you pray really hard, perhaps Maria will deliver the savory delight in question to your doorstep. If your prayers are less effective, you may have to actually follow the recipe and make it yourself. Either way, we're pleased to offer this bonus saintly service to the Lent Madness public.

Maria Virginia Ross

Maria Virginia Ross, Lent Madness Celebrity Chef, shares saintly recipes on our Facebook and Twitter pages on the weekends during Lent to help stave off the inevitable Lent Madness Withdrawal. A member of the laity, she attends Church of the Servant Episcopal in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she serves on the Wilmington Faiths Against Gun Violence Team. She also serves on the Blessed Bakers Team taking turns baking Communion Bread for Sunday services and cookies for inner-city youth programs. Maria blogs about Jesus, saints, angels, spiritual journeys, recovery, and food at Saints and Recipes. She’s a retired full-time mom, amateur photographer, beach meanderer, mountain hiker, intuitive empath, hippie, Whovian, and creator of the Bohemian Writers Coffee Club. Maria is writing a book about the Saints. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

1. If you could have dinner with any saint, who would it be and what would you serve? (and, duh, why?)
St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of my birthday and crazy courage. I would serve him whatever I was having for dinner because St. Francis didn’t care about food. He either fasted or ate with great appreciation whatever feast was placed in front of him. Like a Bohemian, he was all craft first. And, while he had many talents, including writing, his craft was following the Way of Jesus Christ at all times and in every situation. For dessert, I would only ever serve him Honey Almond Cookies because those were his favorite, and he’s mine.

2. What hymn would you pay money never to hear again? And which hymn are you convinced is on the play list in heaven?
I can’t remember the names of all those boring, in-one-ear-out-the-other hymns. My favorite hymn is “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light,” by Kathleen Thomerson, Episcopal Hymn 490 After not attending church during my teens and early twenties, I visited an Episcopal church, we sang this song, and that was it. I was in.

3. You're busy during Lent. Why do you make time for the Saintly Smackdown? What do you get out of it personally? 

• It’s fun.
• It’s funny.
• I’m introduced to Holy People I barely, or never, knew existed. Many times this leads me to deeper research and writing for Saints and Recipes.
• Connections are made.
• Miracles happen.

The Rev. Adam Thomas

Adam Thomas has been with the Lent Madness team ever since he had the misfortune of serving as the assistant priest in Cohasset, Massachusetts. This wouldn't have been a bad thing -- in fact it's a lovely town -- except that Tim was rector of the church in the next town. Suddenly Adam found himself in the penitential vortex and the rest is history. After serving as a Celebrity Blogger in 2012, Adam "retired" and got kicked upstairs to become the Bracket Czar. In this role he  designed the bracket itself for many years and updates it every morning during Lent. It's an unsung but vital role and we're all grateful.

The Rev. Adam Thomas, Distinguished Lent Madness Bracket Czar, had one stint as a celebrity blogger before going backstage at Lent Madness as keeper of the bracket and writer of pithy headlines on the bracket page. This Lent is his fifth as rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Mystic, Connecticut. Adamis the author of Digital Disciple: Real Christianity in the Virtual World (Abingdon 2011), the novel Letters from Ruby (2013), and a video Bible study series Unusual Gospel for Unusual People (2014). Now he writes fantasy novels in his limited spare time, or designs board games, or plans for his next session of Dungeons and Dragons. Adam lives in Mystic, Connecticut with his wife Leah and their beautiful and precocious twins. Check out his website WheretheWind.com, for nearly ten years of content. You can fan Adam on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @RevAdamThomas.

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Some people think of the Supreme Executive Committee as penitence potentates, looking to gain whatever advantage can be gained from the season of Lent. But that's not the only side of the SEC. They also enjoy bestowing gifts upon the Lent Madness faithful. Thus it is, if you are looking to share the Lent Madness love with your entire congregation, the SEC has a gift for you. For the first time ever, we offer you Bulletin Inserts!

We don't think anyone needs instructions, but here's how bulletin inserts work: print them and insert them into your church bulletins. Hence the name.

We guess if you wanted to be subversive about it, you could print a bunch and stick them in:

a) The bulletins of other churches.

b) The Playbill when you finally score tickets to Hamilton.

c) The hidden stash of Super Bowl programs currently sitting in a Minneapolis warehouse.

d) Your neighbors' newspapers.

If nothing else, you will be providing a service to your fellow parishioners who are likely desperate to do something (anything!) other than pay attention to the sermon.

Download the insert right now, fire up your printer, and get ready to shake up your Sunday morning.

The Rev. Marcus Halley

Finally! A newly-minted Celebrity Blogger to introduce. We're excited to add Marcus Halley to the Lent Madness team this year. Sure, Minnesota is now over-represented (cough...David Creech...cough) but can you really ever have too much tuna fish casserole?

In other news, for your pre-Lenten reading pleasure, here's a rare, behind-the-scenes Q & A with Lent Madness creator Tim Schenck. Among other tidbits, learn which Celebrity Bloggers cause him to lose sleep with their loosely held definition of "deadline."

The Rev. Marcus Halley is an Episcopal priest and rector of Saint Paul’s Church on Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A native North Carolinian, Marcus previously served as Pastor for Young Adults and Families at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Kansas City, Missouri in the Diocese of West Missouri. He is a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, NC), the Interdenominational Theological Center (Atlanta, GA), and the School of Theology at the University of the South (Sewanee, TN.)  Prior to ordination as an Episcopal priest, Fr. Marcus served as a pastoral resident at Emory University Hospital – Midtown in Atlanta, Georgia. This is his first year as a Celebrity Blogger.

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Neva Rae Fox

We're excited that returning Celebrity Blogger Neva Rae Fox agreed to answer our questions despite the fact that it's Super Bowl Week. You may not know this, but Neva is a HUGE Philadelphia Eagles fan. We're not sure if she was one of those Philly fans who once famously booed Santa Claus but at least St. Nicholas isn't in this year's bracket.

Oh, and for those of you rabid football fans considering blowing off church on Super Bowl Sunday, consider this. We don't THINK God cares about the outcome of football games. I mean, presumably God has bigger fish to fry. But do you really want to take that chance?

Neva Rae Fox cannot fully express how excited she is to return to the Lent Madness crew for a fourth year, remaining the only Jersey Girl among the celebrity bloggers. Since last year’s Lent Madness season, she has ticked off a few more items on her bucket list, most notably: visiting Hawaii (thereby marking 48 off her quest of visiting all 50 states!); three more MLB parks to her current total of 16; and enjoying four exciting operas that she had never seen before. She is the Public Affairs Officer for the Episcopal Church and looks forward to seeing thousands of Episcopalian friends at our upcoming family reunion known as General Convention – stop by the media room and say Hi! Neva Rae remains active in her Diocese of NJ church as well as local, regional and national organizations and groups – some you may have heard of, and some you probably haven’t. Neva Rae is excited about the 2018 season of learning, fun and frivolity known as Lent Madness and, of course, to another mug for her collection!

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Dr. David Creech

Here at Lent Madness, we hoard Davids. We have three of them: Sibley, Hanson, and Creech (not including St. David of Wales). Two out of three of our Davids are Lutherans, but that's a mystery for another day. Today we meet David Creech, the first of our Trinity of Davids. This is Dr. David's fifth year plying the Celebrity Blogger trade. We keep him around for a variety of reasons but mostly because his doctorate lends us a veil of respectability ("one out of four doctors recommend Lent Madness for all your penitential needs").

Oh, and in case you missed yesterday's special Celebrity Blogger Week edition of Monday Madness, watch it here. It's must-see, pre-Lenten TV.

Dr. David Creech is Assistant Professor of Religion at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. A student of early Christianities, David knows a lot about saints—they anathematized many of his research subjects. He is a product of an Evangelical seminary and a Catholic PhD program and now teaches at a Lutheran college and worships with Episcopalians. For those looking for the ecumenical voice (read: objective and unbiased/quite confused) in this year’s competition, he’s your man. Although he does dress in robes from time to time, David brings the unique perspective of a layperson. His book title is long and boring (The Use of Scripture in the Apocryphon of John: A Diachronic Analysis of the Variant Versions) but nearly sold out of its initial print run of 200 copies. You can follow David on Twitter @dyingsparrows and read his oftentimes provocative posts at his blog by the same name. When not teaching and writing, David enjoys owning his three kids Ian, Ela, and Dylan at Sorry.

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If you watched yesterday's edition of Monday Madness, you know that Tim and Scott revealed a well-kept secret about the world's most popular online Lenten devotion. Participation in Lent Madness is...(shhhhhh)...entirely free. You can simply download a bracket and vote during the weekdays of Lent.

Sure, you can purchase copies of The Saintly Scorecard: The Definitive Guide to Lent Madness 2018 or giant bracket posters to put up at church or Lent Madness mugs. And, yes, the Bible says (somewhere), "God loves a cheerful purchaser of Lent Madness tchotchkes."

But beyond our "no purchase necessary" approach to Lenten learning, we have one more item to give you. A token of our appreciation; a free pre-Lenten gift in the form of...an article about Lent Madness!

Perhaps you edit your church's newsletter. Maybe you like to share really long posts on Facebook. Or spam your friends and relatives with unwanted e-mails. However you want to use it, the article and accompanying graphics below are yours for the taking. Because we care. Enjoy!

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Ever since Florence Nightingale was crowned with the 2017 Golden Halo, the anticipation over the 2018 Lent Madness bracket has been nearly unquenchable. Nominationtide produced a flurry of saintly suggestions from all over the the globe which were narrowed down at the Supreme Executive Committee's secretive spring retreat.

Following last week's bracket leak at the nefarious hands of the international hacking organization LentiLeaks, tensions were running high as the SEC prepared to release the official bracket. Fortunately increased cyber security prevented further leaks and we have arrived at All Brackets' Day with the bracket -- and the integrity of Lent Madness -- intact.

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