The season of Lent is the Lord’s gift to you

The month of February is upon us, and with this month the great penitential season of Lent begins. Ash Wednesday falls on February 14 and is a day of complete fast and abstinence for Catholics. Good Friday is the other day of complete fast and abstinence and, as a reminder, all Catholics who have celebrated their 14th birthday are obliged to keep the law of abstinence. That means that no meat or foods made from meat by-products may be eaten on these two days. The law of fast pertains to all Catholics who have celebrated their 18th birthday and have not yet celebrated their 59th birthday. That means that they may eat one full meal in the day and their other two meals taken together do not equal their one full meal. Also, it means that there is no eating between meals.

With this in mind, we need to understand that fasting and abstinence are not ends in themselves nor are they the sum total of the season of Lent. They are the reliable ways the Church has always used to assist us in the ridding of ourselves of our sins and those habits which are obstacles to our relationship with the Lord and the right living of our baptismal vocation to holiness of life. All the prayers, the readings from Sacred Scripture and the devotions of Lent are helps to us in the cultivation of a virtuous life of faith, hope and charity.

What the Church asks of us in Lent is to be serious about fasting and abstinence as those means to greater holiness. The Church urges us to make them operative in our lives by daily prayer, works of charity and acts of real penance. If you can, go to daily Mass in Lent and be sure to receive the sacrament of penance; perform real charity for others in need by depriving yourself of something to give it to others; choose a penance to observe each day in Lent as a way to purify your mind and heart of whatever has become an obstacle to your living of the faith. Be realistic in what you do in Lent but most especially be faithful to what you choose to do in Lent.

When the Sacred Triduum of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday arrive, you will be able to celebrate them with the kind of faith and devotion which Our Blessed Mother had as she followed her Divine Son to Calvary, to the tomb, and lived in joyful expectation of His Resurrection. She was not disappointed, and neither will you be if you make Lent a time of real repentance and conversion.

The season of Lent is the Lord’s gift to you to start again in the living and deepening of your faith. Accept this gift of time and make good use of it. You will not regret giving your time to Jesus.