Kick-starting Your Lent

"Lent is a time of going very deeply into ourselves...What is it that stands between us and God? Between us and our brothers and sisters? Between us and life, the life of the Spirit? Whatever it is, let us relentlessly tear it out, without a moment's hesitation." - Catherine Doherty

With Ash Wednesday occurring on March 6th this year, Lent is fast approaching. Have you started to think about what you are doing for Lent this year? Instead of the stereotypical Lenten sacrifice of simply giving up chocolate, I invite you to do something that will truly change your spiritual life this year.

I would like to invite you to take a deep and prayerful look over your life throughout the next week or so before Ash Wednesday. Take some time to prayerfully sit down and really reflect on your current life. Ask God for the grace to see the things in your life which are obstacles on your spiritual journey.

For some of us, our main spiritual obstacle could be noise. Perhaps we try to fill every moment with music or some other distraction that prevents us from becoming recollected and able to hear God's voice. For others, it may be an unhealthy use of social media. Maybe we spend too much time scrolling through our feeds and neglect prayer. For others, it could be unhealthy relationships with others. Is someone in our life leading us away from God? These are all things we need to take time to ponder in our hearts.

Giving something up is only the first half of the spiritual equation. In addition to giving something up, I believe we should fill the resulting void with something positive. Here are some ideas of positive actions we can take instead of merely abstaining or fasting from things during Lent:

1) Prayer

"Prayer is being on terms of friendship with God, frequently conversing in secret with Him who, we know, loves us." - St. Teresa of Avila

If our prayer life has been lacking, now is the time to change that! A key part of any relationship is communication. If one or both parties cease to communicate, the relationship will be seriously weakened if not ended. How is this concept any different within the spiritual life? If we want to continue in our relationship with God, we must speak with Him!

During Lent, I recommend adopting a daily "prayer schedule" so that you can gain discipline in your spiritual life. It is easy to have the intention to pray, and then neglect actual prayer because we choose to do other things, etc. One discipline I adopted which changed my life was the 30 Day Holy Hour Challenge, and Lent is the perfect time to do it. The challenge essentially consists in making a holy hour (an hour spent in prayer) every day for 30 days. Before starting the challenge, my prayer life was lacking. It may seem "scary" to try to pray for an hour, or you may think you don't have the time, but I still believe you can and should make the commitment. You can read about my experience with the challenge here.

2) Almsgiving

"A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood." - Mark 12:42-44

Almsgiving is one of the key components of Lent. As Christians, we are called to relieve the sufferings of the less fortunate, and this can be done through financial assistance. It can be tempting to try to absolve oneself of the responsibility of almsgiving, especially when one isn't exactly the richest. However, I think we can logically deduce from the above Scripture passage that we can still give from a position of personal poverty. Furthermore, I believe this Scripture passage shows that God prefers this true sacrifice instead of merely giving from our surplus, which is a light sacrifice.

3) Rebuilding Relationships

"Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift." - Matthew 5:23-24

One of the major themes of Lent is forgiveness. A major focus in the Church becomes healing and forgiveness; for example, parishes have increased opportunities to receive the Sacrament of Confession during Lent. I believe this holy season is the perfect time to end hostility or grudges in our relationships with others and reconcile. If we have received mercy, we must also extend it to others! We would be like the Unforgiving Servant in Scripture (Matthew 18:21-35) if we turn around and refuse to forgive another after having been forgiven by God.

4) Evangelization

"The essence of evangelization is to tell everybody 'Jesus loves you.'" - Mother Angelica

Lent is the perfect time to share your faith. During a time of personal spiritual renewal, we can spread the word and bring others along with us! I believe one powerful way we can evangelize is by the way in which we live our lives. We can in fact lead others away from Christ if we fail to live up to our calling. A quote which has been famously attributed to Mahatma Gandhi is "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Whether or not Gandhi actually said this, there is an important and deep truth to this quote. If someone who is not Catholic sees how we fail to practice what we preach, do you think that will encourage them towards conversion or drive them away? While this is a very cliche saying, if we want to "talk the talk" we must "walk the walk."

I hope reading this blog post has led you to start thinking about your Lent! Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of things you can do to make this Lent fruitful. We each have to take time to really discern what we are called to do to make a change in our lives. May you follow the voice of God on your spiritual journey during this holy season!

Geo

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms © 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament © 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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