By the time you get this issue of the paper, we’ll be at least a week into Lent. When you’ll actually be reading it is another matter, but here we are.
There are many different ways people approach Lent. Everyone can discern in their own hearts what “prayer, fasting, and almsgiving” mean to them.
Even though Lent leads to Easter, the most awesomest, coolest, wonderful thing ever — to put it lightly — Lent can be intimidating because of its inherent doomy gloomy mood.
The season of Lent can teach us lessons on how to live as disciples of Christ that could be put into practice all year round but that we probably shake off once Easter morning comes and we want to eat and drink all of the things.
One of these is how to live a more penitential life.
With as many sins as we ourselves are committing, as well as the whole world, you’d think we’d want to do as much of this as we can to try and repair some of the damage we’ve done to God and others in this world.
But how?
Did your tummy rumble on Ash Wednesday? Do you miss your coffee or whatever you “gave up” this Lent? Did you catch yourself wanting to look at your phone for the 50th time today when you told yourself you’d limit yourself to only 30 times a day during Lent? Are others indulging in things you decided to do without during this season and it is really getting to you? Are you frustrated that you have to do anything at all during Lent even though it’s rather bothersome, annoying, uncomfortable, or maybe even painful?
Good job, that’s step one. Where do we go from there though?
If it’s any consolation to you whatsoever, if done correctly, your growing frustration with Lent can be made good.
I don’t recommend performing acts of penance with the main purpose of hurting yourself, but if a prayerful act of penance hurts a little bit, there are a few things you can do with that feeling.
One is to “unite it with Christ’s suffering”. Full disclosure, I’ve been hearing that one for many many years and I’m still trying to get the hang of it. In prayer, reflect on the fact that Christ was God and perfect and so on and he still felt pain and suffered. He knows what you’re going through more than you do.
Another thing you can do is offer those challenges up as reparation for the bad you’ve done. You’ve done bad. You know what it was. You still had to have gone to Confession and all of those good things, but acknowledging the wrong you’ve done and paying for it can help to prevent future bad things via you.
Speaking of paying, Lent can be a very Purgatorial time to be alive. We can do a lot of penitential things during Lent to reduce our time spent in Purgatory and not quite fully united with God yet.
It’s a good time to earn some of those indulgences too (Jubilee Year of Hope reference!).
For more information on them, go to madisondiocese.org/jubilee or madisondiocese.org/indulgences
Pray pray pray
Lent is a good time to make more time for prayer and keep making that time after Easter has passed.
With time as one of our most valued, treasured, and misused gifts, we should be giving as much of it as we can to God for all that He has done and given to us.
Are there lots of other things we would rather be doing? Of course there are, that’s why we do them instead of praying.
I’m not saying prayer is going to be as entertaining as a TV show or smartphone game or as physically rewarding as a nap but it is good for our souls which is all we are going to have left when we die (up until the Final Judgment when we become a body and soul again).
Does it hurt a little to focus on prayer and not everything else? Probably, but like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, it’s good for you.
Am I an expert on prayer? No, I’m an expert on not being very good at it. I need this season of Lent as much as anyone. It’s always another time to renew ourselves spiritually and “do better” than last time.
Will I come up short in whatever I’m trying to do? Yup. We aim for perfection but never get there.
That’s when we have to trust God and let Him fill in the gaps and bring us the rest of the way amid our imperfections.
Thank you for reading.
I’m praying for you.