The Four Elements of the Lenten Season

Growing up in a very devout Catholic family in south Louisiana, as a child, I looked upon the Lenten Season as a time of loss and deprivation. The giving up of something cherished like television, movies or a hamburger on Friday’s – whatever, seemed an annoying and lengthy burden. 

As my faith matured through the college years and beyond, I have come to recognize the glory and majesty of this edifying time in the life of the Catholic Church. 

The Lenten Season, as a more enriching and intentional exercise than its companion, the days of Advent, has emerged for me as a time of discipline, introspection and prayer. 

We, as Catholics are invited into this period of examination, to embrace the value of discomfort and to find the path to a heightened level of spiritual renewal. 

The child-like sense of Lent as a burden has blossomed into an enlightened and mature openness to the transformative power of sacrifice and the opportunity to seek new avenues of spiritual advancement. 

Aspiring to elevate ourselves, the goal of Lent is the creation of spiritual armor as we seek to eliminate temptation and sin in our lives and bring Christ to the center of every decision we make. 

Through the act of surrendering (my Lenten theme), let’s look at four key elements as a renewed approach to the Lenten journey:

1. Discovery: Through careful examination, pay attention to your habits and worldly attachments. This is a time to detach from those areas of our life that separate you from others and Jesus Christ. Create in these 40 days, new habits that free you from the bondage of worldly desires and replace these with fulfilling spiritual practices.
2. Challenge: As I have stated, growth and comfort cannot coexist. In order to experience real growth, beyond child-like annoyances, you must engage in prayer, fasting, penance and almsgiving as a challenge to your daily routines. In these sacrifices, we begin to draw closer to sufferings of Jesus and learn the meaning of our capabilities as a reflection of our devotion to our faith. 
3. Acts: Our spiritual commitments must turn into action. One way to approach this is to consider three sacrifices (what to give up) and three additional Lenten activities (what to add). While you may give up coffee, social media and binge- watching soap operas, please add three uplifting activities to your days like: joining a bible study group, daily morning and evening prayer, schedule a daily/weekly time in Adoration or volunteer to serve meals at the local shelter. 
4. Growth: The entirety of these activities are design to shake us up – to move us to a new and higher spiritual place. By challenging ourselves in new and illuminating ways, we discovery the journey, purpose and glory of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. 

So let’s move into this invitation to discover new avenues of faith, to challenge ourselves to grow, to learn from the experience of new activities and, ultimately, through these 40 blessed and holy days, grow closer to each other and to Jesus Christ.

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O, God, come to my assistance, O, Lord, make hast to help me. (Psalm 70)