Ash Wednesday ushered in Lent, a forty-day period before Easter in which a person reflects, sacrifices, and repents before the events of Holy Week. Seems like a grave time of year, all “giving up” and self-remonstration. But, as my pastor asserted, it doesn’t have to be. It can be a time of joy. Here are three words to keep in mind during this Lenten season.
Prayer: Is your prayer life all it should be or even all it could be? Are you praying by rote and not from the heart? Lent is an excellent time to review your prayer life and alter it for the better. Try praying at different times of day. Try rewording your usual rote. Read Scripture. Do whatever it takes to improve your communication with God.
Fasting: On Fridays during Lent, Catholics fast. This is not to say that we do not eat; we do. We eat two small meals and one larger meal, not to exceed the sum of the two smaller meals. We don’t snack between meals. How is this spiritually helpful? It requires discipline, for one, never a bad attribute to have in one’s wheelhouse. But it’s also physically helpful: It makes a person mindful of what she is putting into her body. How much do you really need to eat? What can you do without? It forces one to look at the intentionality of something one does every day, often without thinking. And living with intention is a good thing.
Abstaining/Adding: People often “give up” something for Lent: smoking, drinking, eating chocolate…usually things they enjoy. But abstaining isn’t the only way. It can be more fruitful to ADD something to your routine: “I will smile at three people every day” or “I will read a psalm a day,” for instance. The point of abstaining/adding isn’t to put yourself through a trial for forty days, only to shuck it off on Easter, however. As my pastor said, the point is to do something (or not do something) that will effect a positive change in you as a person. It is to change yourself in a good way, to transform into a better being. The hope would be such a change would stick long after Lent is through.
Forty days to a better you? How joyous to see Lent in such a light!
