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As I write today, of course I am thinking about which liturgical season or special religious day will be celebrated when this editorial is published. It will be the first weekend of Lent. We will have already celebrated Ash Wednesday, a very solemn day that marks the beginning of Lent. It is a day to remember our mortality and need for reconciliation with God and our neighbors. We do this in a visible way by having the sign of a cross marked on our foreheads with ashes. These ashes come from the palms that were distributed on Palm Sunday the year prior. Some of the blessed palms are collected and burned for the remembrance.
Lent is a time set aside. It is a time of particular focus on prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent leads to the greatest solemnity (or highest-ranking form of feast day) we celebrate as Christians: Easter Sunday. Lent is 40 days in length and does not include Sundays, as Sundays are a mini-Easter. During these 40 days, we strive to imitate Jesus fasting in the desert before he began his public ministry (Luke 4:2, Matthew 4:2).
All of this leads me to ponder, how will I observe Lent this year? In my search for ways to observe a "good Lent," I read this quote by Elizabeth Scalia in her article "God Is Mine And I Am His – Finding Joy In Lent With St. Elizabeth Ann Seton" for the Seton Shrine. I was touched by her perspective.
"Life hands us all kinds of challenges exterior to ourselves. Lent is the interior challenge that dares us to consent to having humility enough to struggle, and even to fail, in order to develop a dependence upon something beyond our own natures -- the supernatural strength of Christ Jesus, whose 'grace is sufficient'" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
"Lent encourages us to aim high and wide, and then learn to deal with it when our arrow does not hit the lofty spiritual target we had set for ourselves -- to be consoled as we begin to appreciate what 'When I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Corinthians 12:10) really means" (Scalia).
I always feel weak during Lent. I am weak from fasting because I do not like fasting and therefore do not use this powerful, spiritual tool often enough. Lent reminds me of this. This also reminds me that I am mentally weak, for our actions come from our thoughts. So, how am I thinking about fasting, praying, and almsgiving? As St. John Vianney said, "The saints did not all begin well, but they ended well" (qtd. in Scalia).
If we are doing it right, Lent keeps us humble. That is exactly where God wants us. An unknown author stated, "One should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer" (mycatholiclife.org). When I pray, how am I being generous? This naturally brings us to almsgiving, which is necessary to strengthen our love for others. This spiritual practice increases detachment from worldly things and positively influences social justice. We are to hold all these things in our heart as Mary did. Jesus said, "When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6:3-4 NRSV).
It is simple: pray, fast, and give in humility and with joy. But it is not easy. I hope that by inviting the Holy Spirit in, and after asking for guidance, that I will grow in love for God and neighbor this Lenten season. It is not too late to begin. Let us get started!
Tiffany Haller, director of religious life, St. Ann Catholic Church, Williamsport.