Listening to Christ

Lent starts in just ten days (Wednesday, February 10, is Ash Wednesday).  The traditional Lenten disciplines are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; so let’s think about each in turn.

Prayer: Our Lenten Mission this year will start on the weekend of February 27-8, with talks the Monday – Tuesday – Wednesday following.  The focus of the mission will be on prayer; why not mark your calendar right now so you can attend either morning or evening each day?  And why not look back at Matthew Kelly’s The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic, especially his chapter on prayer (pages 42-71)?  In addition to “doing” prayer, we can all use to learn more about how to pray, and both the Mission and Kelly’s book are good helps to that.

If your schedule allows it, you might also think of making a commitment to coming to Mass one or more weekdays during Lent.  The Mass is the central prayer of the church, and daily Mass is a privilege few Catholics in the world enjoy.  It can be a lifeline in tough times, and a source of growth in holiness at any time.  Masses are Monday through Friday at 8am and 9am, Saturdays 9am only.

Fasting: The traditional rules for fast and abstinence from food are in the Bulletin.  But in today’s culture there’s another sort of fasting that I think might be even more important: Fasting from media.  Why not experiment, this Lent, with turning off the radio in the car?  With unhooking from Facebook and Twitter for a day or so a week?  (Or for all of Lent, if you want to try that?)  From Netflix or cable tv?  And with using the five minutes before Mass starts to ready yourself to listen to God at Mass?

(I put the silence before Mass under “fasting” rather than “prayer” because I think that makes more sense.  To be silent in the presence of others goes against our instincts the way fasting from food does.  And like fasting from food, it’s designed to create a hunger – in this case, for what God has to say.  {The Eucharistic Fast has the same purpose.}  When the call for silence is made before Mass starts, use the quiet as a gift: Read the readings you’re about to hear; or go over the past week and what you face in the days to come, and ask, “What do I need God to speak to me about today?”  Fasting is a way of making ourselves ready for God.)

Almsgiving:

Giving to the poor and needy is a central way of growing in faith.  I won’t pretend to explain how it happens, but the testimony of saints through the ages (and of Jesus himself) says it works.  If you have a plan you follow for sacrificial giving (to the parish and to other charities), this might be a time to review it and to ask whether God might have given you enough so that you can do more.   Tax-time is coming: As you figure what you were given by God in earnings last year, also figure what percentage of that you gave back to God in His poor and His church.  If you’ve been giving 2%, why not aim for 2.5% or 3% from now on?

You might also think of a one-time substantial gift to some particular need, such as the plight of the Christian churches in the Middle East.  The Catholic Near East Welfare Association (www.cnewa.org) and Catholic Relief Services (www.crs.org) are reliable charities; you can find out more on the web.

Closer to home the Catholic Ministries Appeal is another opportunity to share what God has given to you.  You can make a pledge for the year, or a one-time donation.  Materials are in the lobby, or you can watch for the mailing that should arrive any day, if it hasn’t already.  I contribute to the Appeal every year, because I know how much good it does.  (It supported me and my ministry when I was a chaplain at Stony Brook University back in the 1980s.)

Prayer. Fasting.  Almsgiving.  Each is an invitation to make an opening in our busy lives and distracted minds so that the grace of God can enter.  Lent is a special time to do that.  Let’s not miss the opportunity.  Until next week, peace.