What are you planning to do for Lent? Might I suggest the same things as I recommend for New Year’s resolutions?
1. Make sure your resolution is realistic. There’s nothing more crippling than setting ourselves up to fail because we will not be able to meet our resolve.
2. Make sure your resolution is meaningful to you. If you try to do what others are doing, you might not succeed because it has no meaning to you. Lent is personal.
3. Make sure to add both “negative” and “positive” resolutions. Negative are the ones that we say we are giving something desirable up. Positive are those things we add to our daily lives; e.g. extra prayer, volunteering somewhere, visiting someone, et cetera.
4. Make sure that you are doing this because you want to improve your relationship with God and not merely because you “have to” in order to appease others.
Lent can be a beautiful, prayerful journey. May you find peace and grace as you move closer to God.
Don’t forget, tomorrow, Ash Wednesday is a Day of Fast and Abstinence. The Fridays of Lent are Days of Abstinence. Good Friday is a Day of Fast and Abstinence.
Fast: Allows for only one full meal to be taken during the day. Two smaller meals are permitted, if necessary, to maintain strength according to one’s needs. Eating solid foods between meals is not permitted. Fasting is to be observed by all Catholics who are 18 years of age through to those who have not yet celebrated their 59th birthday. [Medical conditions may make it impossible to fast. The Church has never held its people to the impossible. If you have a condition that prohibits you from fasting, you are not obliged to do so.]
Abstinence: The practice of refraining from meat and meat products. Abstinence is to be practiced by all who are 14 years of age and older.