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
- Helping Children Discover God Through The Beauty Of Creation
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn I was sitting on the soft, green grass at my parents’ lake home in rural Minnesota admiring all of creation. The weather was lovely on that bright summer afternoon when my husband of fifteen years walked over to me with the mischievous grin he often wore when he wanted to… Read more: Helping Children Discover God Through The Beauty Of Creation - “Follow” St.Dominic Savio: How This Saint Inspires Today’s Catholic Teens
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Are you looking for ways to awaken your ten-year-old’s faith? Or are you trying to help your 16-year-old granddaughter discern God’s will? Below you’ll find a letter addressed to young people that explores the life of St. Dominic Savio, who died when he was 15, and who has been canonized… Read more: “Follow” St.Dominic Savio: How This Saint Inspires Today’s Catholic Teens - What Is The Seven Sundays Devotion To St. Joseph?
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Ite ad Joseph, the saints have said, which means Go to Joseph. Have you gone to St. Joseph? Do you think of asking his intercession? There are some formal ways we could do that. There are several prayers that one could recite and pray: the Litany of St. Joseph, the… Read more: What Is The Seven Sundays Devotion To St. Joseph? - First Sunday Of Lent Gospel Reflection From Breaking The Bread
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days to be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are… Read more: First Sunday Of Lent Gospel Reflection From Breaking The Bread - 4 Ways To Help Children Understand The Stations Of The Cross
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gmail LinkedIn The Stations of the Cross can be intimidating to introduce to little ones. Between all of the different parts involved in Christ’s journey, the length of the prayer, and the depth of the material, it can be a lot. This Stations of the Cross Pray and Play Set is an… Read more: 4 Ways To Help Children Understand The Stations Of The Cross
