Editorial

This Lent, let’s seek to convert our hearts as we try to follow Christ more fully

In less than two weeks, our Church calendar turns to Lent, a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday (March 5 this year) and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday (April 17). This year, Easter Sunday is celebrated on April 20.

As we’re reminded each year, Lent is a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection at Easter. Among other things, the 40 days represent the time that Jesus spent in the desert, where he was tempted by Satan (Mt 4:1-2, Mk 1:12-13, Lk 4:1-2).

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, the “seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year [Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord] are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice.

“These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing [charitable and missionary works]” (#1438).

The Lenten season is especially a time to seek to convert our hearts as we commit to follow Christ’s will more faithfully. We are again reminded to trust and depend on God.

While many focus on the tradition of abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent, we are also called to practice self-discipline and fast in other ways throughout this season. Why not work on your disciplines and fast from eating between meals, gossiping about others or avoiding other habits that are physically and spiritually unhealthy?

When it comes to prayer, why not increase your daily prayer schedule or add spiritual reading to your daily routine? The Bible or the Mass readings for the day might be a good place to start. Or download a faith-based app like Hallow or iBreviary to assist you.

Lent is also a final period of intensified learning and formation for individuals to be received into the full communion of the Church at the Easter Vigil through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. Pray for the catechumens and candidates at your parish and throughout the universal Church. The prayers of a faith community are encouraged as we joyfully await those who will join us to participate in the Eucharist and the other sacraments, which offer a foretaste of heaven.

Many parishes offer special programs during the Lenten season. Peruse your parish bulletin or the schedules of other nearby parishes to see if a program being offered speaks to you as you try to grow in your life of faith. Or visit websites for places like Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House in Indianapolis (fatimaretreathouse-indy.org) or other retreat houses. (See page 6 in this week’s issue for a list of Lenten programs offered by retreat houses in the archdiocese.) The resources offered can enhance your journey of faith.

In addition, almsgiving is one way to share God’s gifts—not only through the distribution of money, but through the sharing of our time and talents. Lent offers us an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ to those in need. Donate to food banks, the St. Vincent de Paul Society in your area and other organizations whose mission includes feeding, clothing and getting necessities to those who often go without them. And volunteer. Charitable organizations are always looking for people to help them fulfill their mission. Why not pick a day and take part in such an outreach during Lent as a family?

During Lent, all are also encouraged to experience God’s forgiveness in the sacrament of penance. In next week’s Feb. 28 issue of The Criterion, we suggest readers clip out and save the list of opportunities throughout the archdiocese where individuals can receive the sacrament of reconciliation. Why not pick a time and go as a family? It is a beautiful witness of faith when parents and their children seek God’s healing mercy and the graces of the sacrament together.

Our faith teaches us grace is something we cannot live without each day.

The catechism tells us, “Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others and in the growth of the body of Christ, the Church” (#2003).

May we put Christ at the center of our life as we begin our Lenten journey. And may grace—which is God’s divine assistance—fill our lives.

—Mike Krokos