When asked what Catholics are doing for Lent this year, they'll probably tell you that they are giving up a favourite food, a favourite pastime or anything else they really love but isn't essential in their lives.
Many people, unfortunately, think of Lent as merely a time to “give up something.” They grudgingly accept some small sacrifice, struggle to keep it up for 40 days, and then, once Easter arrives, return to business as usual. Lent shouldn’t be lived like that. It is meant to be a season that leads us to a deeper conversion of heart, a closer identification with Christ.
We need to understand that giving up something for Lent helps us develop self-discipline and control our natural desires. It is a form of fasting. It is a form of penance. It promotes spiritual growth.
If you're giving up something for Lent, that's great. Improving our spiritual life is also another possibility and a step in the right direction to make the world a better place. Let’s look for ways that we can increase your knowledge of your faith, strengthen our spiritual life and above all, perform special acts of mercy and kindness at home, at work, in our parish or community.
Lenten prayers and devotions
Let us begin each morning with the prayer: "Lord, I offer you this day, and all that I think, and do, and say." This keeps our mind focussed on the obligations and reason we are participating in the Lenten seasonal activities.
As much as possible, let’s make attending Daily Mass a priority. This could be a step in helping us cultivate the habit of frequent if not daily Mass attendance. Praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary is very important too.
We need to make the Stations of the Cross at home or in a parish celebration a vital part of our Lenten activity. To devote a special time for bible study and devotion, read Scripture for 10 minutes every day and devote another 10 minutes for meditation or quiet time.
The Lenten season is a great time to pray the Seven Penitential Psalms (Psalm 6, 31, 50, 101, 129 and 142). Quality prayer time could be spent in quiet prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
Concerted effort should be made to listen to spiritual music or a spiritual speaker as often as possible. We need to seize this opportunity to get closer to God in all we do. Abstaining from meat for an extra day or two each week will also help improve our health while we observe this Lenten obligation.
To help keep track of our progress regarding our Lenten resolutions, keeping a Lenten journal with our spiritual insights, special intentions, people we want to pray for, hurts and disappointments that we want to offer up is very important.
May this year’s Lenten season lead us to a better discovery of our self and a closer relationship with Christ,
I have been thinking a great deal about my experience at Reconciliation this past Saturday. I felt an intense and unexplainable urge to go and confess my sins when I woke up that morning. I try to go every six weeks or so, but this was no routine visit to the priest for me. I needed to unburden myself of the numerous venial sins I had committed since I last participated in this Sacrament.
Purest Gold: God's Refining Fire in our Lives »
After salvation, many young Christians wonder if there's anything more to their newfound faith than just the security blanket of "being a Christian." Time and time again, God shows himself as a "refiner," and our lives are as gold. God started leading me in this study to understand what He was doing in my life, as well as in the lives of others.
Picking up my pen to write this column, I couldn’t imagine how time flies. Since the last publication of this column I have gone through a lot, especially the loss of my dear mother to whom I dedicate this article. Not only her, but seems I lost a whole generation of my close family.
How to Achieve Business Excellence »
“Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before Kings; He will not stand before unknown men.” Proverbs 22:29
Spiritual Development for our Youth »
Most of us youth in today's fast moving world are easily thrown off by difficulties and worries.
The theme of conversion is a thread that runs all through Lent, but conversion takes on different aspects throughout the phases of Lent. The first two and a half weeks focused on the interior turning of hearts; the liturgy urges the faithful to reflect and examine consciences thoroughly.
Saint Josephine Bakhita »
Feast Day: February 8
Patron Saint Of: Sudan
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan. She was a member of the Daju people and her uncle was a tribal chief. Due to her family lineage, she grew up happy and relatively prosperous, saying that as a child, she did not know suffering.
Catholics Must Fast More Intensely This Lent»
The Norbertine Canons of St. Michael's Abbey have created this digital Lenten retreat so that you can journey through this holy season alongside them. If you want to have one of your best Lenten seasons yet, join us in our Lenten Program "The Great Fast" - https://theabbotscircle.com/the-great-fast-join
When Your Faith Is Put to the Test - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon»
Friends, we come now to the Second Sunday of Lent, and we’re on both dangerous and very holy ground with the first reading from the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. The ancient Israelites referred to it as the “Akedah,” which means the “binding”: Abraham binds and is ready to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command.
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