Lent begins on March 5th this year. If you haven’t started thinking about it, now is a great time to begin thinking about what you are going to do for Lent this year. Most people will give something up that they enjoy during Lent such as eating chocolate, playing video games, or using social media. Giving something up is a good and holy practice, but we should also remember to ask why we give something up during Lent and allow the answer to guide us. For example, if I were to give up coffee during Lent, it would decrease my dependence on caffeine, which is probably a good thing. It would also make me more irritable and unpleasant to be around, though. If the goal of my Lenten fast were to improve my health, then it would be worth doing. If the goal of my Lenten fast were to improve my relationship with God and open my heart more to God, then giving up coffee would work against my goal. Suffice it to say, you’ll see me drinking lots of coffee during Lent.

Giving up something we enjoy is just one of our penitential practices as Catholics. The Church, following Christ’s teachings in the Gospel also recommends to us the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Each of these penitential practices helps us to refocus and reorient our lives, preparing us not only for Easter Sunday, but also for eternity.

In prayer, we approach God in humility and in the recognition that He is almighty and all-knowing, and we are not. True humility is about recognizing the reality of who I am and who those around me are. With all the incredible technologies and abilities of modern man, it is good for us to remember that we are not God, and we never will be. Humility helps us to recognize that we need God, that we must turn to Him. When we recognize who God is and who we are in relation to Him, this increases the virtue of piety in us. Prayer, then, helps us to grow in the virtues of humility and piety.

When we talk about fasting in the Church, we are talking about fasting from food unless we specifically say otherwise. Other types of fasting are not necessarily bad, but fasting from food, in particular, focuses us in a way that other types of fasting doesn’t. Food is necessary for our survival: if we don’t eat, we die. By depriving ourselves of something that is not just good, but necessary, we grow in trust for God and his providence. We remember the good things He does for us and that He provides for us in our hour of need. We remember that we depend on Him for all things, that without Him we would not have anything. Fasting helps us to remember that we depend on God and to grow in trust of Him.

Almsgiving increase the virtue of charity within our hearts, and it helps us to imitate God. God has given us all that we have, and He calls us to imitate Him in all ways. In giving alms to those who cannot repay us, we imitate the generosity and charity of God.

These three practices are complementary to each other, and practicing all three is not much harder than just practicing one. For example, if we fast from lunch on Wednesdays and Friday, we can spend that time in prayer allowing God to fill our soul with His grace and love in place of filling our stomachs with food. The money that we save from not eating lunch those days can then be given to the poor, to a food pantry, or to some other charity.

Let’s spend some time planning for Lent now so that Ash Wednesday doesn’t sneak up on us like a bandit in the night. Instead, we’ll be prepared to have a holy and uplifting Lent that brings us closer to God.

Fr. Matt