Are there particular addictions/weaknesses/excesses that we should try to remedy - food, drink, smoking, TV, laziness, impatience with

others, being on time? Saying No in legitimate areas, for the love of God, remembering how Our Lord willingly endured suffering for love of us: not eating chocolate, doing without salt, pepper, sugar etc now and again, giving another the choice of TV programme, not going for the comfiest seat, using stairs instead of an escalator. Doing this builds moral strength as we are trained not to always take the easiest option; and therefore more able to resist temptation when it comes.

The Meaning Of

lent

Almsgiving. The corporal works of mercy i.e. do we give generously to those in material need? The spiritual works of mercy - do we give time and prayer to others: family, friends, neighbours, the sick/lonely/bereaved? Do we help the Church in our parishes, schools etc where possible? Do we try to love not only those we like, but also those we dont, or who dont like us, as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount? If we werent sure how much we needed God before, reading through this should have convinced us! Gods call comes to us loud and clear in Lent: Come back to Me, repent, turn again and be saved! Choose Lenten resolutions carefully! It is better to choose something we can definitely carry out. Better to do one thing well, than to promise everything and do nothing! Perhaps we should concentrate on prayer and our personal relationship with Our Lord first; it may be that then, it will become clearer what areas of our life need to be looked at. Fasting & Abstinence: the law of the Church. Fasting: those who are between 18 and 60 are to fast. In practice this means eating less on Fridays in Lent (& just one main meal and two snacks on Ash Wednesday & Good Friday). Children can learn to do without sweets/crisps/pop on these days and so enter the spirit of the season. Abstinence: those aged 14 and above are to abstain from meat on Fridays and the two Fast days named above.

Jesus said: The time has come. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel. (Mark 1:14)
THE SEASON The origins of the season are to be found in a period of fasting and prayer before the Feast of Easter, the centre of the Churchs cycle of worship or Liturgical Year. This pre-Easter fast gradually grew from two days a week to its present length of 40 days. It is an extremely ancient custom: the period of 40 days was already established by 320 A.D. Lent is 40 weekdays (i.e. Sundays are not included), which is why it starts on Ash Wednesday.

Its Meaning It is a spiritual preparation for Holy Week and Easter. A time of special acknowledgement of our sinfulness, and reflection on Christs sufferings & death on the Cross for our Redemption. The 40 days remind us of Christs 40 days of fasting and prayer in the desert. Lent is a period of collective prayer and penance. It reminds us that we are a fallen race, subject to the wounds of both original sin which we inherit, and our own personal sin. The ashes we receive remind us of this fact, and so collectively, the whole Church has this time of public prayer and penance. We all stand in need of Christs mercy and forgiveness. Lent has great importance today in view of the spiritual black hole in our society, the loss of the very sense of sin itself and of our deep need for God. The souls of all of us still have areas which are not fully under the reign of Christ; they are enemy occupied territory and we need to win them back. The Damage caused by Sin. Sin - the deliberate turning away from God in thought, word, deed or omission - always causes us damage and weakens us spiritually. Over time, it leads to a loss of love for the things of God and a complacency about our state of soul which has a carbon monoxide-like effect; putting us into a dangerous sleepiness where we are tempted to think everything is okay. Almost unawares we can give up, gradually, more of our souls life to the Enemy, surrendering our temper, our purity of heart, our sense of balance, and our love of God etc. In Lent, we try to focus on this with renewed vigour - to recapture, with Gods powerful help, what has been lost or weakened, and to grow ever more into the likeness of Christ. Sin damages us in three ways: 1. It damages our communion with God 2. It damages our own body/soul relationship: the body is encouraged to rebel against what the soul knows is the right thing to do 3. It damages us in our relations with our neighbour, because sin makes us increasingly selfish and love only ourselves. If we are to repair this damage, a major cause of human misery, then we need God and we need to ACT.

Our Lenten Response. There is a threefold response to the three areas of spiritual damage. They were prescribed by Christ Himself and they are hugely powerful, having been tried and tested over many centuries. Thus: 1. Prayer - where this has been weak or drifting, we set our minds to give time to God in prayer in order to strengthen our relationship with Him. Penance - the denying of the self and its constant demands, to help us control a weak human nature which leans towards sin. Almsgiving - to remind us of our responsibilities to each other and to those in need.

2. 3.

Prayer. Are we regular at Sunday Mass, the supreme prayer of Christ and His Church? Could we go to weekday Mass to sanctify our day? Is it possible to visit Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament during the day? Do we consider going to the Stations of the Cross? Could we pray the Night Prayer of the Church each day? Do we spend some time in personal prayer to Christ? Do we say our morning & night prayers? Do we say other prayers - the Holy Rosary, the Angelus, grace before and after meals? Do we do some regular spiritual reading - of the Scriptures or a Catholic book to raise our minds to God? Do we offer everything to God, remembering His loving presence with us at all times? Penance. Are we regular in going to the sacrament of Confession? Are there serious moral faults we should try to conquer, and which separate us from God and prevent Him working within us? Do we carry out our Friday penance by abstaining from meat and/ or fasting?