What are you doing for Lent? It’s a question that sometimes we know the answer to long before we get to Ash Wednesday. Other times, we’re scrambling to discern what we could do to enter into the desert of our souls.
Everyone has memories of fruitful seasons when what we did brought us deeper to God and each other. Those Lents taught us lessons that lasted long beyond the forty days.
We also all have those Lents where we seemed to scramble about, and wonder if somehow, we wasted the time. We didn't. God takes whatever we offer and multiplies it.
However, sometimes we all need a bit of inspiration to get started. Here are 20 Lenten resolutions that yielded good fruit.
20. Going to daily Mass.
19. Praying the rosary as a family if not daily, then on Tuesdays and Fridays especially.
18. Reading the Gospel every day.
17. Volunteering for the soup kitchen or pantry program.
16. Adoration – becoming a regular visitor.
15. Participating in the Stations of the Cross weekly.
14. Fasting from meat all 40 days.
13. Picking a person each day to pray for. Write down your intentions and ask them for theirs.
12. Reading the writings of Pope Benedict (Benedictions is good), or one of the Doctors of the Church – or each of them. There are 38 doctors, so you can cover most of Lent with one day of each, just 20 minutes a day.
11. Fasting from social media. (It is a sacrifice, because it is hard for some).
10. Calling someone who you love who is far away, every day to visit. Alternatively, resolving to visit someone nearby – someone at a nursing home, in prison, or just your neighbor who lives alone.
9. Abstaining from television.
8. Doing an examination of conscience each night.
7. Surrendering caffeine or whatever comfort food is your regular crutch on a daily basis (in my case, Coke Zero and yes, I know it’s cliché, chocolate).
6. Serving your family by taking on a task that others do.
5. Turning off the radio in your car/and the phone, so that you have and cultivate opportunities to be silent with God and hear his still small voice.
4. Alms –we don’t think about what this is or what it means very often. Giving to the poor, willingly, generously, and what they need –walking with them beyond the moment, that is alms giving. It is a radical charity of self, not just money or objects, but presence. Think the Gabriel Project or the Saint Stephen’s Ministry.
3. Walking each day and while you walk, praying using a podcast or prayer app. Offering the time and each step.
2. Practicing the Liturgy of the Hours, if possible, with a sibling or spouse or friend.
1. Drinking only water, or fasting from all bread but the Eucharist.
If we fail in our intentions, fear not. God loves our efforts and loves us. Rejoice even as you struggle because Lent allows us to give glory to God for saving us from and in our weakness.
If we hold fast to our Lenten resolution, rejoice. The act of self-denial, of sacrifice offers us graces. We learn how to better love Him and our neighbor. It is not about how perfect we can be in our discipline, but about how God will use our offering to help us become more perfected disciples. Rejoice this Ash Wednesday and go eagerly into the desert. Have a blessed Lent!
Sherry Antonetti is an author, freelance writer and Catholic blogger.
