Struggling with Lenten commitments? A prayer of St. Teresa on mortification

“Why O Lord, should I be preoccupied with my fears and lose courage in the face of my weakness? You give me to understand that I must fortify myself in humility, and convince myself that I can do very little alone, and that without your help I am nothing. I shall put all my confidence in your mercy, and shall distrust my own strength, convinced that my weakness is caused by my self-reliance. You teach me not to be astonished at my struggle, for when a soul wishes to give itself over to mortification, it encounters difficulties on all sides. Does it wish to give up its ease? What a hardship! To scorn a point of honor? What a torture! To endure harsh words? Intolerable suffering! In short, it becomes filled with extreme sadness, but as soon as it resolved to die to the world, every anguish is at an end.”

Saint Teresa of Avila

Can special events be celebrated during Lent?

Q: Dear Father John, I have a question… My brother’s graduation is this March during Lent and my family normally eats in a really nice restaurant for dinner after graduations. Is it okay if we aren’t able to fulfill our Lenten fast or penance on days like that? 

A: What a beautiful question! It shows that you are sincerely concerned about living Lent well. Since Lent is a season of special penance, prayer, and almsgiving (by which we prepare ourselves for the liturgy of our Lord’s Sacred Passion), you are wondering if it is possible to celebrate an important event without tarnishing the spiritual atmosphere of the season. I have three thoughts for you.

Keep Fridays Well

First, remember that we all abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent. This is a form of penance and self-denial that the entire Church engages in. We also take on personal penances and spiritual disciplines, but this is one we do as a Catholic family, united with all our brothers and sisters throughout the world, and throughout the centuries. So, if your graduation dinner were to take place on a Friday, you would actually need an official dispensation from this Lenten requirement in order to serve and eat meat.

Time for Celebration

Second, remember also that the Church has not removed all of its liturgical solemnities from the calendar during Lent. St. Joseph’s Day and the Annunciation often fall within Lent. Likewise, Sundays are still liturgical solemnities all throughout Lent (which is why Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Eve, still has only 40 days – if you include the Sundays, it would be 46). On solemnities, the Church is able to celebrate the triumphs of our Lord without spoiling the Lenten atmosphere.

Equilibrium over Legalism

Third, if someone’s birthday or anniversary were to fall during Lent, that would be no reason to forego a celebration. I think the case you present is similar to those. The graduation is a real achievement, and ought to be celebrated. To have a special celebration in honor of the achievement is a good and just thing to do. You can celebrate wholeheartedly on that day, without giving up or compromising your Lenten disciplines of prayer and penance, and you may even be able to combine them. For instance, you could give the graduate a Lenten-esque graduation present, like a donation in his name to a Catholic orphanage or educational institution. That would show appreciation both for your brother’s achievement, and also for the spirit of self-sacrifice that Lenten almsgiving is meant to express and foster.

I hope you can see that the mind of the Church in this matter always focuses on more than simply following specific external rules. It sets aside these weeks as a time to turn up the intensity of our quest for intimacy with God, our Creator, Savior, and Lover. If we followed all the “rules” perfectly, but didn’t engage actively in that quest, we would be missing the point. Lent is a season of spiritual renewal, of spring cleaning for the soul. The specific rules and practices that the Church requires and recommends are all meant to boost us in that primary, interior, and crucial spiritual adventure.

Ash Wednesday Fasting and Church Teaching

Every year a bunch of questions come up concerning Lent and the details of the laws governing it. Sometimes these rules are misstated or not clearly stated in various places on the web, so let’s look at what the Church’s official documents say regarding the practice of fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday.

Before we do that, though, let me offer a few notes of caution:

1) The Church’s laws regarding fast and abstinence today are very mild. As such, they are minimums. One can go beyond what they require and observe a stricter form of penitence, though one is not legally required to do so.

2) There are ways of technically staying within the letter of the law while violating its spirit—e.g., avoiding meat but having a lavish seafood feast. These should be avoided. We want to keep both the letter and the spirit of the law.

3) The Church does not mean us to hurt ourselves by observing penitential practices, and there are a number of exceptions to the law of fast in particular. Anyone who has a medical condition that would conflict with fasting is not obliged to observe it. For example, someone with diabetes, someone who has been put on a special diet by a doctor, someone with acid reflux disease who needs to keep food in the stomach to avoid acid buildup.

Now let’s look at the law.

Ash Wednesday is a day of abstinence and fast. According to Pope Paul VI’s constitution Paenitemini:

III. 1. The law of abstinence forbids the use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk or condiments made of animal fat.

2. The law of fasting allows only one full meal a day, but does not prohibit taking some food in the morning and evening, observing—as far as quantity and quality are concerned—approved local custom.

Something to note about the law of fast is that while it acknowledges one full meal, it does not further specify the quantity of “some food” that can be consumed in the morning and evening. You sometimes hear or read about “two smaller meals as long as they don’t add up to another full meal” but this is not what the law says. It just says “some food.” That is certainly something less than a full meal, but the Church does not intend people to scruple about precisely amounts. (Also, the “doesn’t add up to another full meal” rule is very difficult to apply since people eat meals of different sizes during the day and the “size” of a meal can be measured in more than one way; e.g., calories vs. volume.)

The law does provide that approved local custom can regulate the quantity and quality of this food, but the U.S. bishops have not established a complementary norm regulating this. Nor has any U.S. bishop bound his subjects in this respect, to my knowledge. (Your mileage may vary.)

Now: Who is bound to abstain and fast? Here the governing document is the 1983 Code of Canon Law:

Can. 1252 The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.

“Those who have completed their fourteenth year” mean those who have had their fourteenth birthday (your first year starts at birth and is completed with your first birthday). The obligation to abstain begins then and continues for the rest of one’s life.

Not so with the law of fasting. “Those who have attained their majority” refers to those who have had their eighteenth birthday, and “the beginning of their sixtieth year” occurs when one turns fifty-nine (the sixtieth year is the one preceding one’s sixtieth birthday, the same way the first year precedes the first birthday). The law of fast thus binds from one’s eighteenth birthday to one’s fifty-ninth—unless a medical condition intervenes.

What about those who are too young to be subject to these requirements? Here Paenitemini states:

As regards those of a lesser age, pastors of souls and parents should see to it with particular care that they are educated to a true sense of penitence.

As noted, these are legal minimums, and one certainly can do more.

By Jimmy Akin – To read more posts by Jimmy Akin, go to the National Catholic Register

Please share this post on Facebook so your Catholic friends will have clarity on this important practice of our faith!

How can I better prepare for Lent?

Q: Can you help me better understand how I should approach the Lenten season? I always seem to find myself in the season without any preparation and then make a knee jerk commitment that I rarely follow through with. Anyway, I am a bit ahead of the game this year but would be grateful if you could help me improve my participation in this important time.

A: It’s admirable that you want to live the season of Lent in a better way. Many people, unfortunately, think of Lent as merely a time to “give up something.” They grudgingly accept some small sacrifice, hold their nose for 40 days, and then, once Easter arrives, return to business as usual. Lent shouldn’t be lived like that. It is meant to be a season that leads us to a deeper conversion of heart, a closer identification with Christ. Lent has a close connection to baptism. In the early Church, adults preparing for baptism would go through a catechumenate. This program, as the name implies, involved catechesis, or instruction, about the faith. The Roman-style catechumenate, officially in place by A.D. 200, extended over two to three years and involved intense preparation each year during the six weeks prior to Easter. As the candidates approached their day of baptism (usually on Holy Saturday) they would fast for a few days. The community would join them in this fast. This was the origin of the Lenten fast. (The tradition of a 40-day fast was established in Rome in the fourth century.) The community in effect accompanied the catechumens and also prepared to renew their own baptismal commitments at Easter. And what does baptism do for us? Among other things, it “gives a share in the common priesthood of all believers” (Catechism, 1268). The common priesthood involves the work of sanctifying, teaching and governing. Our personal example of holiness can help carry out the first work; our words, the second; and our good use of authority (be it parental or political or some other type), the third. In any one of these three areas we could find ample reasons to work on something during Lent. Moreover, “Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others” (Catechism, 1434).

So what does it mean for us concretely? It means that we should aim to get rid of sin from our lives forever, and not just during Lent. You mention about making a “knee jerk commitment.” Instead of a spur-of-the-moment decision, try to set aside some time for prayer and calmly and deeply look at your life. How is your life of piety now, compared to a year ago? What are the sins you confess the most? Those sins might give you an idea of where you should focus your energy. Then, give yourself a concrete goal during Lent, something that will help you battle these particular sins. Give yourself a reasonable goal, something that you can continue to live after Easter. For example, if overeating is a problem, don’t opt for a bread-and-water diet three days a week. The likely result is that on Easter you would pat yourself on the back and then return to your old ways. Rather, learn to make a small sacrifice at each meal — and then see if you can continue that habit after Lent is over. Be sure to give your sacrifices a spiritual motivation too, such as for vocations or for the conversion of a loved one. The other two parts of the triad — prayer and almsgiving — are also crucial parts of the equation. Try to attend daily Mass. Pray the Stations of the Cross once or more times a week. Daily rosary and spiritual reading are good too. If you can get a spouse or a friend to join you in these extra activities, that is even better. And don’t forget almsgiving. This can involve acts of charity or volunteer work as well as donations to worthy causes. And keep in mind those baptismal commitments. A Lenten program could include efforts to share the faith more at your workplace. In a word, make your Lent pro-active. The habits you develop in these 40 days can serve souls all year round.

How to deepen your relationship with Christ this Lenten season

Prayer can be a great consolation to us. It is often the means of God’s grace to strengthen, encourage, and guide us. It is also hard work and requires a strong commitment to persevere. This doesn’t mean that it should be a straining exercise. Still, when we choose to pray we are thereby rejecting other things that might be pleasurable to us. For instance, I know one very busy business man who, though he is a “night person” by disposition, gets up at 3:30 AM every morning to pray. He is driven by a deep passion to know and live his life for Christ. Still, he doesn’t enjoy the challenges related to getting up this early.

St. John of the cross is often criticized for his negative emphasis on denying self. However, this is a matter of perspective. The man I am speaking of does deny his own desire to sleep more, to sometimes have more energy and acuity during the day. But, as he denies himself he is also choosing something very good. Because of the graces God has provided in response, he experiences a great deal of joy and peace in the midst of challenging physical and work related circumstances. His wife would also give testimony to the significant changes that have come in his life because of his commitment to Christ and Christ’s generous response.

What I am getting at here is to propose an initiation or a deepening of your daily prayer life for lent (and beyond). This will involve sacrifice, but it will also bring great graces. If you are up for the challenge our readers have already weighed in on the best resources for this in their responses to our post Tattered Titles. I would like to highlight two of those resources:

The first is Fr. John Bartunek’s The Better Part – A Christ Centered Resource for Personal Prayer. This really is an exceptional work. If you have yet to develop a substantive prayer life, this is the place to start. If you are stuck, his insights and daily meditations will help you past these challenges. This particular approach to prayer will deepen your love for and relationship with Christ and help you to make significant strides in your spiritual life. For a sample of the daily units check out the Wednesday posts on this site.

The second is, Divine Intimacy – Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. This work provides profound insights into the life of God that can greatly deepen our understanding of our Lord and the life we live under His wings. While Fr. John’s book focuses on an encounter with Christ in the Gospels, Fr. Gabriel provides regular insights into the spiritual life based on the insights of great spiritual masters of the Carmelite tradition.

If you wanted to double up in your efforts to dig deeper in lent, use The Better Part to deepen your morning prayer, and Divine Intimacy to fulfill a new or existing commitment of daily spiritual reading and reflection. Both of these books are a bit on the costly side. However, you can also see this as a sacrifice (Fr. John’s book would cost you about the same as 10 visits to Starbucks, and Fr. Gabriel’s about 15).

Both of these works provide for daily insights, perspective, and conversation with Christ – which is the goal of all authentic meditation and spiritual reading. Christ has great treasures waiting for you this Lenten season. Why not give up some time and treasure, and give more to God? It will and should be a challenge but you won’t regret the decision.

PS: For those of you who are fans of these works, it would be great to hear from you about how they have helped you in your spiritual growth. Oh, one more thing – please share this post on Facebook and Twitter so you can bless your friends with this idea – particularly those of you who already know the great treasures that lie in store for those who take up the challenge!