Over the years I have found that the Lenten seasons that were the most challenging were actually the most impactful. Of course, every year is experienced differently, but the lesson is that challenge can become the source of greatest growth. Lenten seasons in which I took on too much became overwhelming; thus, challenge is not about taking on a lot, but rather it can emerge from even the seemingly simplest of commitments. If God wants to challenge us, He will. Therefore, it is important not to overdo it, nor should we allow the struggle to be a temptation point for the evil one who wants to convince us that we blew the opportunity, urging, "give up now and wait till next year for another go at it." In truth, the best way to proceed is to remember that Lent is about a change of heart and growth; it is about movement forward, a life-long work. We can always adjust by adding or subtracting within our Lenten commitments. But above all, understand that it is not what we do, it is the intention with which we do it. Our goal is not to impress God with our deprivation or spiritual prowess, it is to grow in our relationship with Him and ultimately to grow in our life of faith as His children.

However, we often lose sight of one of the deeper realities at the heart of our increased prayer, abstinence, and almsgiving. The Collect prayer * at the beginning of the Mass for Ash Wednesday provides an insight: at the end of the Penitential Rite, (just before the readings), the priest prayed: “Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.” Ash Wednesday was a day of fasting as well as abstinence from meat, and so as a community we were petitioning God for strength during these 40 days. But remember that as we pray, so we believe; this prayer identified and alerted us to the battle against the spiritual evils that tempt us with greater fervor during Lent. Also note that this prayer enjoined God to fortify us with spiritual weapons that are needed both individually and together as a community. In other words, our personal efforts do not only benefit each person individually; they also have a profound effect upon the entire community of believers. If we keep this in mind, it can help us when we are feeling like what we are doing is fruitless. The truth is that our struggles and successes do have impact and power. Everything we do to uphold our Lenten commitment is done as a united community of faith and it affects the entire Body. We are one in the Lord.  

Self-restraint is an act of the will by which we learn to conform our will to God’s. Therefore, like all of our efforts during Lent, it is a gift of love to Jesus. However, the foundation of this virtue is prayer, since prayer is the heart of our relationship with God. In fact, both abstinence and almsgiving, depend upon prayer and flow from it. Purposefully spending time with God strengthens the practice of self-denial (which requires self-restraint); in choosing prayer, we are abstaining from doing something else with that time. Therefore, our prayer will enhance the ability to practice abstinence, elevating it from an act of self-will, (or a type of exercise), to a free response of love. Similarly, prayer elevates our acts of almsgiving from obligations to be met into acts of true charity. If we take these virtues to prayer, they become free responses of love offered to God, and our spiritual practices become stronger weapons in battling the evils in the world. 

Throughout our lives, but especially during Lent, there will be times when we are tempted by a great pull away from prayer (and therefore, our abstinence and charity), accompanied by dryness, and even weariness. Being tempted in this way requires steadfast trust in God’s grace in order to fight the spiritual battle that has arisen. This thought leads us back to the Collect at the start of Lent: our efforts at prayer, abstinence, and almsgiving are weapons in a spiritual war, and our usage of them will be effective if we hold fast to them with the help of grace. And just as Jesus was ministered to by angels at the end His time of temptation in the desert, so, too, does our community of faith, striving together through our combined efforts and strengthened by God’s grace, minister to one another through whatever our participation may be.

Finally, if prayer feels burdensome, if fasting and abstinence feel too difficult, or if almsgiving seems daunting, remember that it is not the size of the gift that counts, it is the intention of love with which we do it. ** We journey as a people of faith, a community of believers, One Body of Christ. If we feel like we are weakening, or that our efforts are inconsistent, remember that there are other members of the Body whose efforts are strength for us to tap into in that moment, and similarly, when we are feeling strong, our efforts are building up those who are faltering. In this way, we truly enter more deeply into the journey with Christ as He suffers and offers His Body and Blood for us. He is our strength, and as gifts of love, our Lenten commitments assist Him as He carries the cross to Calvary.

May we have courage in holding firm to our efforts at prayer, abstinence, and almsgiving during this Lent! May we find strength in the combined efforts of all of the faithful! And may we grow in love as we offer our efforts to the Lord knowing how much they mean to Him! Let us meet in the Heart of Jesus! Peace!

                                    ©Michele L. Catanese


NOTE: In order to immerse more fully in my own Lenten journey, I am "fasting" from blogging for the rest of Lent. I will offer my next new post on Easter Monday, April 21. My suggestion, if you would like something for Holy Week, is to spend time with an entry I posted in 2018. It is significantly longer than what I usually post so that you can take each of the days of Holy Week and read/reflect upon them separately, if you so choose. Here is the link: www.catanesesd.com/micheles-blog/archives/03-2018  Remember, everything in the Archives at the bottom of this page (or right side, depending on your browser) is always available. 
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* The Collect, (pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, Kol-ekt,) is a prayer which changes at every Mass and concludes the opening rites of the Mass. “The Collect invites people to pray in silence for a moment, and then offers a prayer to God that is drawn from the readings or feast of the day, or the purpose for which the Mass is being offered.” https://ctk.org/collect-prayer-sunday-mass#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20collect%3F,the%20Mass%20is%20being%20offered
It is important to listen to these prayers not only because they are beautiful and poetically written, but because they reflect what we believe. The term Lex orandi, lex credendi sums this up; more or less it means “what we pray, is what we believe.”

** I suggest meditating on the role of Simon of Cyrene. (Luke 23:26) Jesus could do very little physically at that point (on the Way of the Cross) which meant Simon was doing just about all the work of carrying the heavy burden. Imagine some of Jesus’ blood getting on Simon’s skin and clothing as they labored. No doubt, by the time they got to Calvary, what began as his reluctance was transformed into great blessing, devastating as the situation was. Can you imagine what was going on in his heart and mind or how many graces he must have received? What if you were in Simon’s place, forced by the soldiers to carry the cross for Jesus? Ponder what that would be like. Perhaps there is a little of Simon in all of us, and if so, we, too, will be given graces by staying the difficult course.  ~ Another meditation point is to pray with the image of the women who met Jesus along the Way of the Cross. They lined the streets, weeping over what they were seeing, praying for Jesus. Every one of them was a comfort to Him and their presence assisted Him in finishing what He came to do. Are we called to be one of those people on the street, and if so, who? Have we ever thought of how important our presence is to Jesus from the Garden to the Cross? Perhaps these meditations can act as a ‘springboard’ for our conversations with the Lord as we journey with Him.
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Images:
1. My photo; Mt. Mucrone, near Oropa, Italy, as we were ascending in climbing to the top. Indeed, a challenge.
2. Icon; The Holy Protection of the Mother of God by Fr. William Hart McNichols. If you are interested in purchasing a copy, you can find this at fineartamerica.com/featured/the-holy-protection-of-the-mother-of-god-026-william-hart-mcnichols.html
3. My photo; Rosary and Bible, spiritual weapons.
4. My photo; White Sands Desert, New Mexico.
5. My photo; Peruvian sculpture of people carrying the cross.
6. Drawing; Old Man Praying, by Vincent van Gogh.

Note: In compliance with GDPR rules, I wish to make it clear that I do not gather any information on any of my readers at any time. 

During Communion at Mass recently, I observed a small child accompanying her parents as they came forward to receive. Her mother received the Eucharist first, and as she did, the little child knelt beside her. Then as her mother walked away from the priest, the child broke free and returned to where her father was kneeling to receive the Eucharist. The little girl knelt a second time, looking up at the priest with something one might describe as awe. The scene was quite moving because it seemed that in her innocence this child may have understood that something sacred and beautiful was going on. But what struck me the most was that she knelt twice, imitating her parents both times. It drove home the point that children do watch and they do imitate their parents. It was evident that these parents are teaching her about the faith, but also that in living what they teach, the child has begun to make their faith her own. If we act according to what we teach, as these parents exemplify, our words can take root in those who seek and therefore observe. Conversely, we can attempt to teach with our words all we want, but if we do not live what we profess, our words become hollow, affecting nothing. In keeping with what Jesus taught in the Parable of the Sower, it is clear that even the good ground where the seed has fallen needs to be watered. (Matthew 13:1-9)

Jesus also said that we need to become as little children. That means that we are to act according to how He acted with the trust, openness, and simplicity of a little child. There have been many great saints who had no formal education, but lived the Gospels so obviously that many were touched by their actions and therefore, grew in their own faith or understanding of God. An excellent example is St. Bernadette. She did not attend regular schooling, and she was intellectually a slow learner, but because her (extended) family taught her the essential prayers and the basics of the faith, and humbly lived by these things, Bernadette was able to grow in her spiritual life.* It was because of her simple faith and her practice of praying the Rosary, that she was able to recognize the Virgin Mary when she appeared to her. Bernadette was so unlearned theologically, that when Mary told her that she was the Immaculate Conception, Bernadette repeated it to her parish priest, but admitted she had no idea what it meant! The ‘fertile ground’ of her faith was watered by her family; even though they were humble and desperately poor, their words and deeds were in accordance with one another, and it opened her to growth in faith, hope, and love. 

If we are to be like little children with the fertile ground of faith, we must spend time ‘observing’ Jesus by reading and reflecting upon the Gospels as well as spending adequate time with Him in private prayer. While all the Gospels are excellent sources, let us look to Matthew. In his Gospel, each of the discourses of Jesus outline Christian behaviors. In the first, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that we should be like salt and light: our behaviors are to be like light which “must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Mt 5:16) Jesus indicated how we should handle anger (offering forgiveness), live in marriage (with fidelity), speak (without oaths), give alms and pray, (simply and humbly, without bringing attention to ourselves), and how we are to fast (we do not do it to impress others.) In the second discourse He taught how disciples should act (Mt 10); in the third He offered parables about the Kingdom of God, outlining what is needed to work toward building it (Mt 13); in the fourth Jesus taught about humility and forgiveness (Mt 18); and in the final discourse He taught about being prepared for His second coming and final judgment, emphasizing the necessity of generosity and love. (Mt 25) **

The season of Lent calls us to become more attentive to growth in our relationship with God, relying on the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we seek to deepen the level of our discipleship and love. It is by immersing ourselves in sacrifice and penance that we come to clearer understanding of these things; it is during our prayer time, Lenten practices, fasting (sacrifices), and almsgiving that we can learn how to love more as Jesus loves, and by our example, invite others to meet the Lord in a deeper way, or for some, to meet Jesus for the first time. It is through sacrifice aimed at taming our sinful tendencies (with the help of the Holy Spirit), that we work at authentically living as His followers, influencing others to desire this, too. We must keep in mind that what we are seeking is interior growth; if we only look at the penances and added prayer/reflection as a 7-week exercise, (as finite and short lived, or worse, something to be ‘gotten through’), then they will do us little good. But if we look to our Lenten practices as true conversion, that is, true change in heart and mind, then we open ourselves to accepting the graces offered that enable lasting growth within our souls. Therefore, this Lent let us water the ground of our souls which contains the seed planted by the Lord and in so doing, water the ground for those who observe us so that they, too, may grow in faith, hope, and love. 

May our Lenten practices bear fruit! May we become more like little children in imitating the Lord! And may our prayer, sacrifices, and almsgiving water the ground where the seeds of our faith are growing so that by our example others may find hope in God, too! Let us meet in the Heart of Jesus! Peace!

                                    ©Michele L. Catanese


* Bernadette's aunt is the one who taught her the most about her faith, instructing her in the basics of the Catechism so that Bernadette could receive Holy Communion and Confirmation. Her parents had simple faith, however.
** Indeed, all of the discourses of Jesus found in all four Gospels can be applied in this way. I suggest that we take one discourse (at a time), spending time reflecting on and praying with the meaning of His words and how we might grow in the graces we need. Only when you feel that you have gotten all you can from it should you move on to another teaching or discourse. The same can be done by meditating on any of Jesus’ parables, one at a time. It is also important to remember to act with humility while we are praying or doing whatever penances we have chosen, (that is, do not do things for others to see necessarily); what will become visible is the fruit of these actions as we grow in compassion, generosity, and love. And finally, prayer, penances, and almsgiving will be even more meaningful if we receive the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation as often as we can during Lent.

Images:
1. Painting; The Sower, by Vincent van Gogh
2. Photo; St. Bernadette Soubirous 
3. Painting; Jesus Teaching, by Duccio di Buoninsegna
4. My photo; Flowers blooming in Dunedin, New Zealand.
5. Charcoal drawing; Ashes.

Note: In compliance with GDPR rules, I wish to make it clear that I do not gather any information on any of my readers at any time.