Welcome to Lent, friends. If you are anything like me (and I pray you are not), Lent still managed to sneak up on you, in spite of its coming so late, and, in spite of all your best intentions, you still feel caught off guard.
If you have a perfect Lenten game plan -- if the Holy Spirit has guided you to the discipline He wants from you -- this post is not for you. Maybe save it for next year, when Lent comes early and might catch you by surprise. If you are thinking, "Oh DANGIT" (because you gave up swearing last Lent and it stuck) "it's Lent and I don't know what I'm giving up/taking up/HOWDOIKNOWWHATTODO?!?!?!"...
well, if your internal monologue sounds like that, it communicates on the same plane as mine, and I am going to talk it down.
First, this Lent, give something up. I know you can find all sorts of people who tell you, "Don't give something up, take something up!" But the Church, for hundreds of years, required Catholics to give up meat for a reason. The Church still requires Catholics to give up meat on Fridays in Lent for a reason. Giving something up -- making a sacrifice of a good in this world -- when done for Christ, leads us to growth in detachment. It means that we are reminded that all the nonessential things of this world are nonessential... and that all the things of this world are nonessential things.
One of the reasons religious life is considered the highest in the Church is because it requires giving everything up for Christ -- stripping away everything that is not Him, so that the person can focus solely on God. The person has no outside distractions or obligations. Of course, we don't all have religious vocations and we can't all live cloistered lives. But Lent gives us the blessing of mimicking this detachment and focus once a year, in a small way.
The obvious question is, "What do I give up?" Allow me to make a few suggestions:
1) Meat. It is what the Church mandated for years.
2) Sweets. Or just chocolate if you can't handle all sweets.
3) Alcohol. Possibly more of a sacrifice than meats and sweets combined for some people.
4) Caffeine. Or just your go-to form, if all caffeine will make you truly unbearable/sick.
If you are thinking, "But this is so uncreative! And I've done it already!" read on. Or just skip to the last bolded phrase.
Second, in addition to sacrifice, we are called to prayer during Lent. So if you want to take something up, take up prayer. If we are keeping our sacrifice properly focused, we will need a greater reliance on God. And upping one's Lenten prayer life can be straightforward:
1) Go to Stations of the Cross. Most parishes have it Fridays during Lent.
2) Pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary daily.
3) Pick one day a week and read the Sunday readings early.
4) Go to Confession more often than regularly. (If you are once a year, go early during Lent. If you are once a month, try biweekly.)
This list may seem like a compilation of the normal, boring, typical things to do for Lent. If you are thinking these are so uncreative and uncool that you might actually lose Catholic Points for doing them, or if you are thinking, "These are fine, but they just aren't personal to me" -- yes!
Because, ultimately, Lent isn't about me. It is not about my Catholic Points or Coming Up with the Coolest Idea or How I Can Prove to God and Myself that I Can Do This Catholic Thing Right. It is about Jesus. And taking on the disciplines suggested by the Church can be an act of obedience and humility -- two virtues utterly necessary for a holy life. These virtues allow us to say, "God, You are in charge of everything, even my spiritual life. You know my needs better than even I do, and I trust you to change me, if I open my life to You."
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