These Forty Days of Lent

Why do Catholics “do” Lent?  As our Gospel reading details, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray, and to do battle with the devil for 40 long days, before He began His public ministry preaching, teaching, healing, and walking with his disciples.  The Judean desert is not a comfortable place, 100 degrees by day and freezing at night.  It is difficult to find comfort in any place where sand won’t be in your food and water, and all over your body and clothes.  The ancients believed that the devil lived in the desert, probably because of its resemblance to hell and where the howling of the wind could be heard throughout the long nights.  In this Gospel, the devil comes to tempt Jesus with three mighty temptations!  

Forty Days also references the forty years Israel wandered in the desert with all of their family, flocks, and possessions.  Why did it take the people of Israel forty years to get to the Promised Land, when it was only an eleven-day journey through the desert?  Because their hearts were not ready to enter the Promised Land.  Their “penance” in the hot desert made them learn to depend on God and to obey His commandments.  

Lent means “springtime,” as we live through the hard winter of our lives, struggling with sin and sickness, and move closer and closer to Heaven.  The Church recommends to her children, from God’s Word, prayer, fasting and almsgiving, because these three acts reference the three critical spiritual relationships:  our relationship with God (prayer), with ourselves and our bodies (fasting) and with our brothers and sisters around us (almsgiving).  Our custom is to choose some Lenten resolutions, perhaps one from each of these categories, in addition to abstaining from meat on Fridays.  

Let me float some ideas for your consideration: 

• Drink only water with your meals. 
• Drop by the Church during the day to make a visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 
• Read the Gospel of Matthew during Lent (40 days to complete 28 chapters).
• Pray the rosary in your car on your next trip to town, instead of listening to the radio or talking on the phone.  
• On Friday, (if in Savannah), skip lunch, attend the Cathedral 12 noon mass, and put the money you would have spent on lunch into the poor box.   (prayer, fasting and almsgiving, all in one hour!)
• Go to the Sacrament of Confession.  Don’t let the devil scare you away from this sacrament, which scrubs your soul and fills you with grace.  It is the difference, as C.S. Lewis attests, between brushing your teeth and going to the dentist.  The second does a lot more!  
• Call or visit someone who is lonely, sick, or shut in.  
• Write down the name of the person who has hurt you most, or hurt the people you love, put it in your Bible or prayer book and pray for that person by name every day.  
• Don’t use salt, pepper or any condiments you like on your food during Lent.   
• Read a good, Catholic book…like the one St. Michael’s gave you for Christmas: “Rediscovering Jesus.”
• Attend the Catechism class on Tuesday nights.  
• Come to the Stations of the Cross on Fridays at 6:00 p.m. in the Church.

One schema which I have always liked during Lent is to do these five things: 1. Give up or sacrifice one thing  2. One resolution on prayer  3. One resolution involving an act of charity for another person  4. Go to confession  5. Make the Friday Stations of the Cross. 

Remember that it is a very Catholic thing to fast before we Feast!  Easter is the Great High Feast of Christianity.  If you set and live some good Lenten resolutions, you will be even happier to see Easter arrive this year!  

Fr. Brett Brannen

Pastor