Five Reasons to Fast This Lent

March 6, 20152 Comments

Jesus did it. The apostles and early Christians did it. The Fathers and doctors of the Church and most every saint you can think of — from Anthony and Augustine to Teresa of Avila, and from John Henry Newman to John Paul II — did it

But we don’t. At least, most of us don’t.

What don’t we do?

We don’t fast. We don’t engage in one of the most ancient, fundamental and powerful disciplines in the Church’s treasury of spiritual practices.

Sure, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday you can still find a decent number of Catholics abstaining from meat and limiting themselves to two snacks and a moderately sized meal. But you’ll also find almost as many of us complaining about it on Facebook and fantasizing about bacon.

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Mother Knows Best: Six Timeless Lessons for Lent

February 17, 2015February 17, 20151 Comment

Your mother knows more than you think.

Long ago, when you were just a wee child, picking at your oatmeal, Mom persuaded you to clean your bowl by peppering her speech with pearls of wisdom. At the time, those pearls may have seemed like nothing more than motherly machinations. And chances are, they resulted in more eye-rolling than oatmeal-eating.

Yet, the clichés that rolled off her tongue with such seeming sadism were, in truth, some of the soundest theological summations on suffering and sacrifice known to man. Her truisms, aphorisms, maxims, and dictums distilled about 2,000 years of Catholic teaching into one-liners so simple that a five-year-old could understand them, but so profound that a 55-year-old can still learn from them.

The fact is, almost everything you need to know about Lenten sacrifice, you learned from your mother. Let’s review.

1. “Offer it Up” Continue reading →

Sacrifice All the Things: The Loser’s Guide to Winning Lent

February 10, 201512 Comments

I grew up Catholic, but you’d never know it based on my Lenten history. For decades, try as I might, I could never get the season right. Some years, I did too much. Other years, I did too little. And sometimes, I simply lost my mind. Like, the year when I gave up expressing opinions for Lent. Yes, I did that. Well, I sort of did that. I tried, but it didn’t work out so well. Fancy that.

There was also a Lent where I did a progressive fast. During week one, I gave up sweets. For week two, I gave up sweets and meat. The next week, sweets, meat, and dairy. By the time Good Friday arrived, I was basically eating like a tee-totaling, vegan Mormon Celiac on a diet. Or, to put it more accurately, I was eating like a miserable, crabby, total wench of a tee-totaling, vegan Mormon Celiac on a diet.

That was a special year for everyone.

The good news is that all those Lents—crashing, burning, banging wrecks that they were—didn’t go completely to waste. My own particular kind of Lenten crazy gave my friends lots of opportunities to offer things up. I think a few roommates actually did count living with me during Lent as their penance. Plus, eventually, I learned from my own mistakes, and stopped trying to win Lent—proving how holy I was by my ability to Sacrifice All the Things.