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Planning Your Lenten Journey: Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving
Lent is a time to eliminate some of the worldly activities and hunker down with Our Lord.
We have just completed the Christmas season with all the secular and religious activities, and we may be feeling the overload of sensory and other Christmastime preparations. We need time to reconnect with God and reclaim our inner peace. Lent is the perfect six weeks to do just that.
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PRAYER: Take a minimum of 15 minutes, preferably more, and spend the time in quiet contemplation of God and how He is working in your life. Read passages from the Bible or read the Mass readings of the day, and spend quiet time contemplating the messages those passages provide for you. Include your family members, even your young children in this activity. You will be surprised how children can come up with insightful thoughts. Pray the Rosary as a family each evening.
FASTING: This gets easier the longer you do it. Well, sometimes it takes a while to grow into fasting, but the more you do it, the more you will want to fast. You do not have to give up all food — of course, you still must eat, but when you do eat, think about what and how much you are eating. Even those with health issues can fast a little and gain the benefits of fasting. The important thing to do when fasting is consider what you are doing and why and offer your fasting up to the Lord to save souls. To be clear, the Church teaches this about fasting:
Fast and abstain from meat on certain days, and especially on such as Ash Wednesday, Fridays in Lent and Good Friday.
Fasting means to limit food to one full meal a day with the possibility of two smaller meals (not adding up to a full meal) as needed. Abstinence means not eating meat, although fish is allowed. Please note that the Church does not require those with health issues to fast or abstain. Those over the age of 14 may abstain and those between the ages of 16 and 59 may fast based on your health.
ALMSGIVING: We may think of almsgiving as just handing over some money to a charity and calling it a day - but there are many ways to consider almsgiving. Not everyone has the means to donate money, but we all have the means to set aside a few hours to help a person or one of the ministries at church. For example, each week we need help from volunteers to answer the phone in the office, stuff envelopes or bulletins, open the door or greet parishioners when they come to the parish office during the week and on weekends. You can help at a soup kitchen, prepare boxes of food at a food pantry, donate food to NEED or drop off at St. Michael Parish office, or do any number of other activities in the community.
Consider doing something from each category each week. Change it up each week if you like. Lent is a time to embrace doing for others. Isn’t that what Our Lord taught us when He was on this earth?
As we transition from the last few years of pandemic, it will help us to help others. Remember, prayer is the pathway to preparing ourselves and our families for Lent. Fasting is the substance that cleanses our heart and mind to prepare for the Resurrection of Our Lord and each Sunday of Lent gives us a hint as what we can do in our lives to walk with the Lord on our six-week journey.
Triduum is the culmination for the Lenten season. The three days of Triduum are so full of beautiful religious meaning. So, do not forget to make sure you save those dates to be at church. You have spent six weeks for preparation, so the Triduum experience is the icing on the cake.
TRIDUUM
April 14, Holy Thursday — 7:00 PM: Mass and adoration until midnight.
April 15, Good Friday — Noon: Stations of the Cross. 3:00 PM: The reading of the Passion and veneration of the Cross. 4:00 PM: Stations of the Cross outside with the youth.
April 16, Holy Saturday — 8:00 PM: Mass
April 17, Easter Sunday — Masses: 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM (English), 1:00 PM (Spanish). No 5:00 PM Mass.
