Column: Living Our Lenten Spirituality

Lent is a penitential season in which we are called to renew and strengthen our commitment to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Year after year, many of us struggle to sustain our Lenten commitments. Why? Because they fly in the face of our culture and our fallen desires. The world calls us to wealth, comfort, and pleasure, and too often, we desire these things for ourselves. That is one reason why living our Lenten spirituality is so important—we need practice to master our bodies and conform our wills to God’s.

Often, we also struggle to come up with the “right” sacrifices, wonder if we are doing enough, and stumble along the way to Easter. It is important to remember that our Lenten commitments don’t need to be extreme in order to be fruitful. They need only to be a step forward from what we are currently doing. To that end, let me offer three suggestions for you to consider this Lent:

PRAYER: Go to one additional Mass per week. We are blessed to celebrate Mass every day of the week at St. Michael. Daily Mass is shorter than Sunday Mass—only about 30 minutes—and with both morning and evening Masses, there is bound to be a time that will work for you. The Mass is not only the most powerful prayer the Church offers, but if you are in a state of grace (that is, free from unconfessed mortal sins), you can also receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, which will only strengthen you for your Lenten journey! Check out our complete Mass schedule in the bulletin or on our parish homepage, stmcatholicchurch.org.


FASTING: Limit your access to media (social, news, streaming, etc.). Typically, when we think of fasting, we think of food and drink. While it is fine to give up sweets, alcohol, or particular foods we enjoy, often the effect is momentary: we eat or drink something else and move on until the next opportunity arises. But for many of us, media is pervasive, and we consume it unconsciously. Fasting from media not only requires our constant attention and discipline, but frees us up for other things—like daily Mass!

ALMSGIVING: Increase the money and time you give in support of our church. I can hear you already: “Nice try, Father.” But hear me out. Often, we think in terms of what we can do to support the charities doing great work in our community. However, one of the precepts of our faith—the minimum expectations of a practicing Catholic—is to provide for the needs of the Church from our own resources. Our recent campaign garnered financial commitments from less than a third of parish households. If you are not already supporting St. Michael on a regular basis, Lent is the perfect time to begin.

Certainly these are not the only ways for you to live out Lent this year, but these three suggestions are bound to bear fruit in your lives and in our community. Let’s take full advantage of these next several weeks to refocus, grow in holiness, and prepare for the great joy of Christ’s resurrection at Easter. God bless you!