Ash Wednesday is Feb. 26 this year. We all know this season should take us into the drier parts of our soul, and reveal to us the temptations that keep us from only feeding on the Word of God alone, from testing God, demanding He prove His love for us to love back, and that distract us from worshiping God alone and above, with no other idols.
The first thing we should consider is, do we know our own weaknesses? Do we know what idols vie for our attention? Do we know what conditions we’ve placed on God as prerequisites to not merely our obedience, but our genuine heart-felt devotion?
Here are some thoughts on how to begin going Marie Kondo on your soul, to ensure you only have room for the source of all joy. Beginning today, keep a journal and just write down what you do. Keep track of what you eat, what you watch, what distracts or entertains you, what fills your time. Do it for three work days and two days of weekend. (You have time before Ash Wednesday to collect all this data).
Categorize the results into fields: food, screens, work, etc. to see what your “go to” habits are, and which might be crowding out relationships including your one with God. See which one you hold onto most aggressively. Which one pulls on your heart, such that limiting it would be akin to pain? That’s the one that is in danger of becoming an addiction.
We all have something we focus on instead of God, it’s the nature of concupiscence. We distract ourselves from God, we substitute for God, and we pretend we don’t actually need to do anything in the relationship. Going into the desert to hear the still small whisper of Our Lord in our hearts, will require quieting everything else.
Still need ideas for Lent and how to hear God more clearly? The Church teaches us to pray, fast, serve and give alms during Lent, so here are some ways to follow that instruction:
Prayer: If you are not yet praying on a daily basis, begin. If you are, set a timer and discern how much daily, and set a timed goal. Add either time or a discipline, and persist even if it is a messy process. Some suggestions include reading aloud the readings for the day, adding the Divine Mercy Chaplet or attending daily Mass. Consider praying the 30-day powerful prayer to St. Joseph. He never speaks in the Gospel, possibly because he learned deeply how to listen to God’s voice over his own. Pray the Psalms, written by a man after God’s own heart. Pray the rosary daily to appeal to and honor Mary’s heart, the heart closest to Christ’s own. The goal is to push yourself out of what is comfortable, and allow the discomfort to be part of your offering to Christ.
Fast: Yes, we fast or abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Fridays, but make it meaningful. Fast in a way that makes you recognize you’re surrendering something you normally allow yourself to be enslaved to. It can be Diet Coke, chocolate, screens, games, spending. Whatever you found yourself addicted to when you inventoried, should be the thing you surrender. It will be hard. It should be hard. Spiritual growth does not happen when we wait, but when we go out seeking, when we willingly throw ourselves out into the desert, calling God’s name.
Serve: We’re all busy, and so adding something to one’s day seems like too much to ask, except Our Lord tells us to do so. If we would be blessed, we must be about the Father’s business, serving others with kindness, our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus tells us the parable of the Good Samaritan so we’ll know, we must do nothing less. Jesus gives us the Beatitudes so we’ll know exactly what God rewards, what God longs to see us doing for our brothers and sisters. Pick an act of mercy (spiritual or corporeal) and get to the business of living it out.
Give Alms: We don’t often think about giving alms, which is not what we already do in support of our Church or whatever charities we favor. Alms carry with them a particular grace for both the giver and the receiver, as the alms are a means of restorative justice. They’re also a form of penance for the rich, designed to bring about greater freedom for both. The Fathers of the Church teach that the wealthy are God's stewards and dispensers, so much so that where the rich refuse to aid the needy, they are guilty of theft. Five doctors of the Church – St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Ambrose, St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine – say as much, and all of these saints merely echo the reality articulated by Christ Himself in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
Lent affords us the opportunity to cut away from our souls the brambles and fat that keep our hearts from seeking Christ first and seeing Christ first in all things. Let us prepare to step out in the desert, knowing Our Lord awaits us there, wanting our company.
(Sherry Antonetti is the author of The Book of Helen, a freelancer writer and a blogger at Chocolate For Your Brain!)
