Getting Ready for Lent

Dear students, parents, and teachers -

As you are probably aware, Lent begins a week from today, with Ash Wednesday. We will have a simple prayer service with ashes at 11am. We will offer confessions in school, with two visiting priests, the following Wednesday. Other special Lenten devotions are also in store.

But are you ready for Lent? Buckle up.

Some writers, looking back at all that has unfolded since March 2019, have suggested that it feels like last year's Lent never ended. They have a point. We have all endured involuntary sacrifices and austerity. How long, O Lord?

But I still want to gently propose that following the Church's liturgical year, no matter our moods or circumstances, is the right thing to do. Lent is analogous to Advent in many ways. One of them: the spiritual quality of our Christmas tends to be proportional to how seriously we take Advent, i.e., how well we unplug from the commercial culture of Christmas and embrace the Church's counter-culture. Likewise with Easter. The Lord may bless you with a Damascus road experience, an experience of his resurrected presence that is entirely unanticipated and unexpected. It really happens sometimes. But more typically, our capacity to discern the risen Lord is connected with the quality of our prayer, fasting, alms-giving, and repentance. Hence we have Lent.

It can be hard medicine, but the Church proposes it in all eras and cultures because, if we let it, Lent will take us somewhere good. Lenten asceticism is not the same thing as COVID austerity, nor is it the same thing as secular self-improvement. Lenten asceticism is about reconfiguring our hearts for the Lord by letting our suffering prune our hearts, by mastering our appetites or yielding our entitlements.

Anyone looking for suggestions on "what to give up," let me know. I enjoy those kinds of conversations. Personally, I'll be "giving up" using my "smart" phone or laptop in bed. I hope this abstinence will free me to read better books, notice different things in the quiet, and create moments for more prayer.

With respect to creating a school culture that respects Lent: you might want to review our bishop's guidelines on Lenten practices, including fasting and abstinence. Fasting is good for us individually of course, but I'm filing this under "communal observance" because I think it makes a difference when we fast in community, as a group. What might God do with our little community here if we all fasted together?

Every Friday in Lent is meant to be a day of abstinence from meat for every Catholic ages 14 and up. More comprehensive fasting is required for Catholics ages 18-59 on just two days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Relatively speaking, this is not onerous. Go ask an Eastern Orthodox friend if you want to hear about more intense community fasting, which I confess I admire very much. But for now, as a Catholic community, let's acknowledge the minimum that our bishops are asking us to do. In Catholicism, besides children and the elderly, people with health issues (e.g., if you're diabetic, or a nursing or pregnant mom) are exempt from all fasting precepts. This means that if you see somebody at MSC who appears not to be fasting or abstaining, no judgment! We will assume that there are good reasons for why you do what you do. Most of our students (but not all) are under 18. But for those under age, or for whatever reason aren't required to fast or abstain, it is nevertheless a spiritually useful and fruitful question to ask: how can I enter into the spirit of the fast? how can I support my Christian brothers and sisters who are fasting or abstaining?

Thank you for considering how we can all practice Lent together well. Amen.

Pax Christi,
Deacon Roberts