“Am I really doing anything special for Lent?” We’re already in the middle of Lent. In South Louisiana we plan for Mardi Gras so well and begin celebrating it so hard right after Jan. 6 with parties, balls and parades that we sort of stumble into church on Ash Wednesday surprised that Lent is already here and wondering what to do to observe it. We need those ashes to remind us that time is short, the time to decide on this Lent’s observance, to prepare for this Easter and indeed to prepare for our own death and resurrection.
If you haven’t really gotten into your observance of Lent, there is still time to begin. Fortunately, the church offers us three traditional ways to observe Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The church asks that we fast and abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent. That isn’t too difficult in Louisiana with our abundance of seafood.
Also, with charitable organizations all selling their mailing lists, most of us probably find our mailboxes stuffed with requests for “alms.” A generous check to a few of those requests will take care of alms.
That leaves prayer. This is different. It cannot and should not be a one-time or a once-a-week thing. What we do with prayer could be the beginning of a frequent, indeed a life-long spiritual practice. As an unknown poet wrote, “Sow a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character, reap a destiny.” The destiny for which Lent prepares us is heaven.
Prayer can be thoughts sown in solitary conversation with God. There is also communal prayer with our fellow Catholics in the Mass, other sacraments and devotions like the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. To strengthen our faith we need both. And there is a third form of prayer, which the mystics call contemplation.
Today it is more the norm than the exception that both husband and wife work. Working couples often realize they have to plan quality time with their children and alone with each other. A good description of contemplative prayer is quality time alone with God. It too has to be planned.
Observing Lent through a special commitment to prayer means setting aside that time. Fr. Jack Wintz OFM, editor of Catholic Update, gave a good example of doing this. He pictured a loving couple sitting together holding hands and silently admiring a sunset. “Prayerful union between you and God,” he said, “can be as simple as this couple’s quiet union and exchange of love with each other.” It is a myth that contemplation is very difficult and can only be achieved by saints.
All of divine revelation and especially God’s sending of his own son to live and die for us shows us that God loves us dearly and eagerly seeks union with us. Such a God is surely available to us in prayer. The prayers that we love the most and understand the best come from saints known for their simplicity. St. Francis gave us “Lord make me an instrument of your peace …” St. Therese of Liseux spoke of the simple way of ordinary prayer and the angels who finished her prayers when she fell asleep.
Our God is a God of love who is present and always offered to us. It’s not a matter of squeezing God’s loving presence out of a turnip. The great spiritual master of our time, Thomas Merton, wrote, “In prayer we discover what we already have. We already have everything, but we don’t know it and we don’t experience what we already possess … It is there all the time and if we give it time (in prayer) it will make itself known to us.”
Some elementary school religion texts contain a hymn by Harry Pritchett that sings, “Surprise, surprise, God is a surprise, right before your eyes.” Those simple words express a profound religious truth which we glimpse often but only fully appreciate through prayer. Two forms of prayer are particularly helpful in discovering the God of surprises: adoration and liturgical prayer.
The first, adoration, is simple prayer and contemplation done before the Eucharist. We already have this offered to us in our adoration chapels. Committing ourselves to an hour of adoration weekly assures quality time with God that we need in our busy lives. It is a Lenten practice that can continue to be the foundation of our spiritual lives for years.
The second, liturgical prayer, means frequent Mass in Lent and celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation during this season. Our church parishes offer communal penance services during Lent. These are good opportunities for the whole family to receive the sacrament. Liturgical prayer shows us that God is present in our lives through Jesus offering himself for us in the Mass and forgiving us in the sacrament of reconciliation. Thus in Lent we discover again the God of surprises hidden in our lives.
Father Carville is a retired priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge and writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator. He can be reached at johnnycarville@gmail.com.