In case you haven't heard, Lent begins on, of all days, St. Valentine's Day. February14th for the non-romantics out there.
Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting and abstaining vs. St Valentine's Day, a day of chocolates and date night dinners out.
You will all have to figure it out on your own. I'm writing to encourage you to start thinking about Lent.
What are you going to do to draw closer to Christ this year? After all, He made a pretty big sacrifice to draw close to us. He came down from heaven!
Just let that sink in for a minute: The God who created EVERYTHING humbled Himself to become human so that we could know Him personally.
I think that makes what we do for Lent worthy of much thought and prayer.
There is a lot of reading material out there for the season.
Magnificat puts out a Lenten booklet available here. It's concise and easy to read. I used to buy it, but my parish now has them available for us for a $1 donation.
I'm intrigued by this offer called "The Last Four Things". Daily email videos and essays to read for the 40 days of Lent. The only thing slowing me down is the $20 price tag. It looks amazing but if I get busy and fall behind I feel like I wasted my money. Praying about it.
Of course there is always that "giving up" part of Lent. This year I am giving up internet time, whether it is on my computer or on my phone. I am reading two wonderful books that encourage way less internet "boredom therapy."
I actually spent one full hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament today. If I gave up an hour of internet time wasting I could do that everyday. I can't imagine the person I would be if I spent an hour with Jesus everyday (in addition to Mass).
I know for today I had a LOT to do. I spent the hour anyway and got so much done afterwards that the day was just wonderful. God will never let the important stuff go undone if you give Him your time first.
So, Lent starts in 19 days. What is your Lent going to look like so that you look more like Christ at Easter?
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