Quite amusing, thanks for asking. I love listening to all the Roman Catholics that work here brag about what they are giving up for Lent.
It’s like they are in a contest to see who is the most pious.
I was unaware that calvinists don’t hold with lent. Sorry.
Your Catholic colleagues evidently believe they have free will. It sounds like they believe they can deny themselves, take up their cross and follow God, cooperating with God’s grace to become more like what He intends them to be.
No-one should ever brag about penance. They should never mention it. But they are absolutely right to exercise their God-given wills.
We must pick up our Cross and follow Christ. We must deny our own selfish urges in God’s name and for God’s purposes. “He that shall lose his life, shall save it.” This Lenten custom of giving up creature comforts is a salutary step towards that.
We must however not tell anyone what we give up. That could easily become something like a Pharisaical practice. Your work colleagues should be more careful.
Anglicans . . . with a little light . . . moving into greater darkness is sad.