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By the time you’re reading this, we’ll be in the season of Lent — the annual 40 days of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that leads us to Easter.
Being blessed with the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago, it might seem like we never really left the last Lent we had.
With how we’ve been living the past almost 12 months, we might not feel we have to give up anything for Lent this year. We might feel like we’ve been giving things up this whole time.
Here’s my uneducated, unscientific, un-everything else thought: Don’t. Don’t “give up” anything this Lent.
Add, don’t take away
OK, truth be told, I am still giving up some things this Lent. I’m giving up soda and desserts (I’m sweet enough already?).
But “giving up” something is not going to be the centerpiece of my Lent.
Instead of losing more, how about adding something this Lent?
If you’ve wanted to go to daily Mass more, go to more daily Masses.
If you’ve wanted to pray the Rosary more, pray the Rosary.
If you’ve wanted to read the Bible more, read the Bible.
If you’ve wanted to find a cause or an organization to donate money to, if you can afford it, do it. Make that a Lenten goal.
Make this a Lent of “subtraction by addition”.
By adding more things, you will create sacrifices on your own without having to will yourself to do them.
Going to daily Mass may mean getting up earlier, going to bed earlier, getting more sleep, and getting an earlier start to your day.
Praying the Rosary more may mean spending less time on your phone, computer, or in front of the television.
Reading the Bible more may accomplish those things also.
Donating to a worthy cause may mean spending less money on things you don’t need and might just be taking up space anyway.
So instead of trying to be a good Catholic and “give up” things like screen time, sleeping in, and buying unnecessary things, you are still accomplishing all of these things, but you’re finding worthy replacements for these sacrifices.
The journey to Easter
A big challenge with Lenten sacrifices is the question of what happens come Easter?
It’s very easy to eat all the things, be lazy, spend spend spend, and lose all of the ground and graces that we gained in the previous 40-plus days.
By focusing on adding rather than subtracting during Lent, you give yourself the opportunities to get into some good habits.
You can keep reading the Bible and praying the Rosary, you can keep going to daily Mass, and you can keep, according to your means, giving money to those who need it.
I’ve never heard of anyone giving up something for Easter, so why should you?
I like to keep things as simple as possible, so much like giving up one thing for Lent, find the one thing you can add during Lent.
There’s at least one thing all Catholics want to do “more” of. Find that one thing, do it, get good at it, make it a habit, and continue it through Easter and beyond.
It will be a nice change of pace to gain something, rather than lose something, which many of us have gotten so used to during this time of pandemic. (Won’t it be nice when most of the use of the word “pandemic” will be in regards to that board game that I’m still trying to figure out how to play well?)
Don’t give up
If you get about a week or so into Lent and things aren’t going well or so it seems, follow the original advice — don’t give up.
Lent can feel pretty long sometimes so you have plenty of chances to start over.
You might not get ashes every Wednesday, but that day can serve as a restart day.
Even if it takes the Wednesday before Holy Thursday to get it right, you still got there. (Insert Matthew 20 reference here: Parable of the workers in the vineyard.)
While Lent is a penitential season, you can still make it a positive one.
All that really matters is that you leave Lent better than you came in — resurrected.