A few thoughts on what to do for a fruitful Lent…
The season of Lent emphasizes three things: prayer, fasting, almsgiving.
- Prayer means prayer, that's pretty simple.
- Almsgiving refers to acts of charity or generosity.
- Fasting refers to going without something, especially something on which we’ve become dependent, something we think we can’t live without, or something that distracts us from God.
But for a fruitful Lent, it is helpful to decide on one practice for each of those themes. To find some practice of prayer you can add to your day. To decide on some act of charity or work of mercy you’ll take up. And to decide what you can fast from - it might be food, like candy, or it might be your phone, or music and news on the car radio, or soda. If you have a latte at Starbucks or CC's or Cups on a regular basis give one of them up a week and put the $ equivalent in your Rice Bowl. The money will help someone much more in need of it than you.
The key is to choose something that you will sustain the whole of Lent, and something that does not gravely disrupt your family life or the people around you. If you drive miles to work, don’t give up driving. If you take care of young children, don’t commit to all-night prayer vigils, at least not every night.
Ideally, the practices of prayer we commit to will become incorporated into our regular lives, and our sacrifices and almsgiving might become something we continue to do as well.
There is a story about Dorothy Day (see below), who used to give up cigarettes each year, but who would annually become so grumpy that the members of her community would beg her to take them back up again. Think about the people you live with, and work with, as you decide on your Lenten practices-- If you work in an office, don’t give up showering, please (you get the idea.)
But think especially about your prayer life. Eventually Dorothy Day decided that instead of giving up cigarettes for Lent, she would start praying daily, “Dear God, help me stop smoking.” She prayed it faithfully for years, though she continued to smoke. One day, she realized she didn’t want to smoke. She never picked up a cigarette again.
Prayer should be the central focus of our Lent. Without prayer, Lent will be a kind of endurance test for us. A test of how strong we are, or how much willpower we have. But Lent isn’t really about that. Lent is about how much we can turn to God the Father, through Jesus, and hand over our lives to him. That should be the center of our Lenten discipline.
So, no candy then? Well, maybe on Sundays. Sunday is our celebration of Christ’s resurrection, and some Catholics decide to put aside their Lenten disciplines, in order to celebrate Christ. There are no rules about this; it’s a matter of your individual conscience. If keeping Lenten practices on Sunday helps you to focus on Christ, keep them. If celebrating Sunday with candy helps you to focus on Christ, that’s ok too.
Have a blessed Lent!
[Dorthy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist, Christian anarchist, and Catholic convert. The Church has opened the cause for Day's possible canonization, which was accepted by the Holy See for investigation. For that reason, the Church refers to her with the title of "Servant of God". If there is a miracle associated with her intercession she will receive the title of "Blessed". If a second miracle is proven by her intercession she will receive the title of "Saint"]