Perhaps a better first question would be: what do you want God to accomplish in your heart this Lent? After all it is God who is at work within us. We do not accomplish our salvation on our own. That is God’s work. I myself hope that God will help me this Lent to above all "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." I hope that at the end of this Lent God will be more a part of my life and I will be more conformed to the Gospel and living the Gospel in my daily life. That means that, first of all this Lent, I must give up anything that might be taking me away from God, or at least keeping me from growing more in the living of the Gospel. In truth that means, first of all, giving up sin or all that might lead me to sin. While it would be good if I would lose some weight this Lent, that in itself is not the purpose of Lent. If I were to lose weight but not grow closer to God, nothing would be accomplished. As St. Paul says in his 1st Letter to Corinthians, if I do anything it must be accompanied by love or it is nothing. Lent is not just a joyless time when we give up things that we normally enjoy. If we give up such things it must somehow help us to grow in love of God and our brothers and sisters or it accomplishes nothing. Of course if I am so attached to something that it has become, as it were, a god for me then I do indeed need to give it up as it is keeping me from the love of God as well as my brothers and sisters. Giving up something, in other words, can be a good way of learning to say "no" to ourselves, of learning to say "no" to sin. In the end Lent is a time of looking forward to the joy of Easter. How can we rise with Christ unless we have learned to die with him? How can we rise with Christ unless we have learned to love him? To me, that above all, is what I am trying to accomplish this Lent. I can of course only do that with God’s help so I hope that God will accomplish that within me this Lent. Whether I give up some food or drink or other pleasure, or spend more time in prayer, or read a holy book, or give alms, I want to grow in Christ. Hopefully by Easter I can say a little more truthfully with St. Paul – "I have been crucified with Christ, and it no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." God bless you this Lent, 2010 To read my personal blog click here.
I have already written a recent blog on this site for Lent. However, I thought it would be good to again mention that the beginning of lent is coming this Wednesday, February 17. What do you want to accomplish this Lent? Is lent just a time of penance and without any joy?