Overachievement is never effective. How many times have we all been inspired to completely change our life for the better, only to slip back into old habits after a couple of weeks? When one tries to change too much at once, none of it sticks.
The same is true for the spiritual life. The devil doesn’t want us to grow in holiness and one of his tactics is to tempt us to try to change too much at once. He knows that after a couple of weeks of trying to change everything, we will revert back into changing nothing.
This is especially important for Lent. So many times I have begun Lent with grand aspirations which simply weren’t sustainable for all 40 days. This is not to say that magnanimity (striving for greatness for God) should be disregarded. Rather, the greatness one strives for should be proportional to what one knows one is able to achieve. Trying to do too much for Lent can backfire into doing nothing, so don’t try to do everything, just choose something you can stick to for all 40 days.
Of course, as your spiritual life deepens, it’s important to take up more challenging practices so you can continue to grow. Many people find programs like Exodus90 or Fiat90 to have incredible spiritual benefits. I used Fiat90 one year and it was one of the best Lents I’ve ever had. But it’s important to use discernment when choosing manageable Lenten practices.
If you aren’t sure how to observe Lent this year, start with the basics.
The minimum Lenten obligations for Catholics are to observe the obligatory days of fast and abstinence and, as always, to attend Mass on Sundays. In fact, attending Sunday Mass and observing the days of fasting and abstinence are two of the five precepts of the Church which the Catechism describes in paragraph 2041 as “the very necessary minimum” for our spiritual life.
The obligatory days of fast and abstinence during Lent are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. All Catholics from ages 18 through 59 are required to fast on these days. The Church defines fasting as taking only one full meal or two smaller meals which do not equal a full meal and refraining from eating between these meals. Liquids are allowed between meals, including milk and fruit juices.
As for the days of abstinence, every Friday in the year is a required day of abstinence from meat, starting at age 14. On Fridays outside of Lent, the USCCB allows the faithful in America to substitute some other penitential act, but on the Fridays during Lent, the faithful must abstain from meat.
If these obligations are new to you, then maybe observing them is enough for your Lent this year. But beyond these morally binding obligations, the Church holds up for us the three pillars of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
The Catechism says in paragraph 1434 that “fasting, prayer, and almsgiving… express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others.”
A good rule of thumb when choosing your Lenten practices is to choose one thing to observe in each area of fasting, praying and almsgiving.
Your Lenten fast can be from a certain food, but it doesn’t have to be. You can fast from sweets— but you can also fast from music or social media. The point of fasting is to create space in your heart for God. The hunger and emptiness we feel when fasting reminds us of our need to be filled by God.
Almsgiving can be donating your money or time to a charitable organization, but it could also be picking up after your roommates without comment. At UD, we have a lot of great service opportunities which can be an excellent way to practice giving of your time this Lent.
There are a lot of options for prayer: the rosary (or just a decade of it), daily Mass, spiritual reading, the Stations of the Cross, time in mental prayer… But the most important is to meditate on Christ’s Passion and Death. Many saints have spoken of the importance of meditating on Christ’s Passion. St. Bonaventure says that “there is no practice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than the frequent meditation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.”
In choosing your Lenten observances, the most important thing is to choose practices you can consistently stick to for all 40 days. It’s better to be faithful in small matters than to bite off more than you can chew.