The Best-Laid Plans
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. We layout the best plans for our Lenten journey. We seek to approach Easter having undergone a well thought out and executed routine of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
If you are like me, this does not always go as planned. In fact, you may have completely fallen off of your well-laid plans and think your Lent is over. What if you only have a week left? What if you have a month left? What if it is literally the day after Ash Wednesday? What happens when Lent goes wrong?
First of all, we have to get this phrase out of our vocabulary. Lent cannot go wrong. Lent is there as a gift from God to restore harmony within our souls. It can also establish peace and harmony in our soul if it was lacking to begin with.
Our Lenten penances are built upon prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It is important to discern how to exercise these during Lent (and beyond), but it is never too late during Lent to add or subtract practices. First, we need to examine why we are doing these penances.
Why Do We Do Penances?
Lenten practices heighten our awareness of God and allow God’s grace to penetrate our heights and minds more readily. So, it is important to be consistent. This is where most folks fall off the plan and stay off the plan. If we waver in our Lenten practices, there are three options: abandon course, alter course, or get back on course.
Three Options – Abandon, Alter, Acknowledge
Abandoning course is not an option for the Christian. No matter how difficult like gets and no matter how much we are suffering, Christ is there to share the burden. He does not tell us, “Be complacent and you will be happy.” Instead, He tells us to take up our cross, follow Him, and live the radical life of the Beatitudes.
We can alter course slightly. We can perhaps work on only a few disciples and try to really commit to them before adding more. The spirit is often willing, but the flesh is weak. This is not an excuse to stop pressing on. Instead, it is the realization that we should challenge ourselves, but we should do so by entering by the narrow stream taking one step at a time, rather than diving headlong into the ocean.
The third option is actually the first one to try. We must acknowledge where we have not lived up to our commitments. Instead of letting this define our Lent or cause us to despair, we simply get back on course. We ask God for the grace to begin again.
The Welcome at Every Start
Proverbs 24:16 says this: “… for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity (Proverbs 24:16).” This very wise teaching tells us that the Christian life is a long-distance run, not a short sprint. We may fall several times (read: thousands of times), but we are always invited by God’s grace to get back up and try again.
There is a beautiful line in the Mumford and Sons song “Roll Away Your Stone” that encapsulates this reality. I think it also works well for a spiritual reminder during Lent and for our entire lives, really. The line goes like this: “It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart, but the welcome I receive with every start.”
It is inevitable that we will fall. It is part of our fallen human nature to be inclined to sin, to be weaker than we want to be, and to fail. However, God never fails. He never fails in extending His hand to lift us back up and get us back on course. Never be discouraged if you are clinging to God. And if you are distracted for a time, then simply allow God’s grace to give you a renewed focus.
Lent Resources
- Autism Consecrated: A Neurodivergent Ministry By Neurodivergent People
Facebook Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Print Friendly After several years of wishing for spiritual resources for neurodivergent people from a Catholic perspective, I collaborated with Father Mark P. Nolette, an autistic Catholic priest, to create Autism Consecrated in 2020. Our website aims to be a point of contact for autistic people seeking spiritual belonging and a… Read more: Autism Consecrated: A Neurodivergent Ministry By Neurodivergent People - Fools For Christ: The Strange Joy Of The Saints
Facebook Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Print Friendly The World Today A missile cuts through the night sky, sending people scrambling across open space and towards safety. Elsewhere, a father scans his grocery list, second-guessing purchases and wondering if he can fit everything within budget. In another part of the world, behind closed doors, ultra-wealthy and influential… Read more: Fools For Christ: The Strange Joy Of The Saints - Washed In Love, Pierced By The Cross: Following Christ To The Vigil
Facebook Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Print Friendly The Triduum is at the heart of our whole Christian life. It celebrates the Lord’s Pasch. We can understand Pasch as passage and passion. Our Lord passes from death to life through the suffering of His cross. The central image of all three days is the cross. The Church… Read more: Washed In Love, Pierced By The Cross: Following Christ To The Vigil - Easter Sunday Gospel Reflection
Facebook Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Print Friendly On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told… Read more: Easter Sunday Gospel Reflection - Eucharistic Miracles And The Real Presence Of Christ
Facebook Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Print Friendly We live in a world where secularization and technology have rendered most people detached from organized religion of any sort. Science has, to some extent, been hostile or at least ambivalent to faith, often creating doubt in people’s minds. What better way is there for Jesus to draw people… Read more: Eucharistic Miracles And The Real Presence Of Christ
