Spending a Good
Lent
By
Seminarian LANCE ENAD,
lancivspatricivs@gmail.com
February 28, 2019
Venerable Prosper
Guerranger OSB tells us that the principal effect Lent should have
in us is the renovation of our spiritual lives. In this sense, a
person who comes out of a well spent lent should be a better
catholic, a person who loves God more, a person more identical to
Jesus Christ.
For most of us, spiritual
perfection is the work of a life time. If we at least try to conquer
a particular vice or defect and to acquire a particular virtue or to
make a particular resolution for each lent, we would at least have a
stable growth in our spiritual life in the spiritual life, mind
you, according to St. Augustine, not to move forward is to move
backward.
It is a pity though how
lent is almost not noticed nowadays and how the spirit of lent is
chocked by the thorn bushes of the world. That is why it is
interesting how in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite (Tridentine
Mass), lent is preceded by Septuagessima season a prelude to lent
so that the faithful may be better prepared to spend a good lent.
In line with this, here
are some things useful to spend a good lent.
Root out a vice or
defect. Catholic Spirituality would tell us that each of us have
a predominant fault which is an obstacle in our spiritual life.
Lent would be high time to remove these so as to advance in the
spiritual life. If for example, one has the vice of intemperance in
eating or drinking, lent would be the time to confront this, to
purge ourselves of this vice, this capital sin which lead us to much
graver sins. It would be a mistake to think that one would give up,
lets say, drinking in lent, and would return to unrestrained
drunkenness after lent. A man with the vice of intemperance taking
lent seriously should come out of it a man who has, or at least is
sincerely trying to have, the virtue of temperance not only for this
particular lent, or for this particular liturgical year but for the
rest of his life.
Acquire a virtue.
St. Augustine tells us that virtue is just another form of Charity
here I do not mean philanthropy but Charity, the theological virtue
that has God for its object, that is, the Love of God. St. Francis
de Sales also tells us that the devout life the spiritual life
consists in loving God. In this sense, the renovation of our
spiritual life would mean that we would love God more, that we will
acquire more virtues not for their own sake but because they are a
means to prove our love for God. For instance, a young man, may use
this lent to acquire the virtue of chastity he would have to do
some spiritual reading, a lot of prayer, a lot of mortification, a
lot of devotion to the Mother of God during this season of lent to
acquire this virtue so threatened by the world today. It is to be
noted that virtue for us is not merely the fruit of personal
struggle alone but virtue is not possible without the grace of God.
If each person, at least in a city, decided to acquire a virtue each
year, that city would probably become a city of saints.
Prayer and penance.
Lent would be the time to form the habit of prayer or for those with
this already, to intensify their prayer. The spiritual life is not
possible without prayer. Prayer, apart from being the great means of
salvation and spiritual perfection, is the means by which we acquire
graces. Without grace, the spiritual life is not possible. Lent
would also be the time to acquire or to strengthen the virtue of
penance. There are so many reasons to do penance (something I
discussed at length in my other essays). It would, perhaps, suffice
to say here that lent is the best time to unite ourselves to our
Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross by means of penance and that the
penance, along with prayer, is a pillar of the spiritual life.