During this time of year many people look forward to a “Spring Break.” Just recently I had the great pleasure to spend time with my six siblings in sunny Florida for a few days. This brief family vacation provided both a welcome and special time together as well as a break from our ordinary responsibilities and routine schedules.
In our faith lives, we are in a special “time” as well; not a vacation, but certainly an out-of-the ordinary time: Lent. These 40 days are not intended to be a “spiritual vacation,” but more like an extended spiritual retreat. But much like vacation-breaks when we find new and different ways to spend our time, Lent also challenges us to make time to spiritually refocus our lives, reenergize our spiritual fervor, and repent of any of our sins, so that we are able to truly rejoice when we reach the conclusion of these 40 days of Lent and celebrate the most important feast of the year: the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The three traditional Lenten spiritual practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving/ works of charity are important ways to spend this special time.
Prayer is simply opening our hearts to God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sharing with him what is most important to us at this time in our lives — what are our needs, worries, concerns, joys, accomplishments, temptations and failings — and asking God for his grace to help us live our lives according to his holy will. Prayer can also be of an intercessory nature, asking our Blessed Mother and the saints and angels to help us — intercede for us — pray for us from their heavenly home. Prayer can also be bringing the needs of our loved ones, friends, and even our enemies to God to ask his graces for them.
Fasting is a wonderful spiritual practice of denying ourselves something that we enjoy (food, TV shows, snacks) for a greater good — to make us more mindful of the needs of others, as well as to have that sense of longing, even in our human senses, for what our souls long for: to be one with God in heaven.
Works of charity/almsgiving are those conscious choices we make to reach out in loving service to others — those who are near us or total strangers — to help them in their need. These are the ways that we try to pattern our lives on the life of Jesus, as he prayed, fasted and reached out in love to all.
Lent is the time for us to add these practices to our lives, which means that we may have to give up some other daily practices.
During this Year of the Eucharist, as we reflect on what the mission of the Eucharist is we realize that, as Jesus summed up all the commandments into one, we are to love God and neighbor with all our hearts. If we’re not doing that now, then we should consider three questions: (1) how can I show mercy to others? Mending broken relationships? Forgiving longheld grudges? (2) how can I reach out in loving service with more intentionality, not just an occasional kind act or act of charity, but develop a mindset of loving service? And finally (3) how can I witness to the Good News of Jesus, which assures me that he has won salvation for me by his suffering, death and resurrection — how can I help others to know that Good News and live with that same kind of joy?
If we can observe these 40 days of Lent with this kind of awareness, we will come out of this special, out-of-the-ordinary, season refocused, reenergized, repentant and then ready to rejoice that Jesus has died and risen for us, and has won for us the gift of Eternal Salvation.