Seven Rookie Lenten Mistakes

Yes, yes, everyone is posting about Lent, but what to do. I'm Catholic, it's the day before Ash Wednesday, I'm home alone and there are no pancakes to enjoy Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Tuesday), so I may as well eat snacks and blog about LENT!

Whether you're super-Catholic, Catholic but not obsessively so, a non-Catholic Christian who appreciates the roots of the Lenten disciplines, or even a non-Christian who likes the idea of Lent, you may have been thinking of doing something to commemorate this season. What's wrong with getting some discipline in your life, right? But here are some ways you CAN do it wrong.

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Giving up things to feel good about yourself

The whole point of Lent is to turn back to God. If giving up stuff just gives us a pleasant sense of accomplishment, then perhaps we should rethink why we're doing what we're doing. Our egos are so good at feeding themselves on seemingly good things. I've found that one way to combat this is to give up something that sounds stupid to other people, but which you know you need, like giving up staying up late playing video games, or giving up using cuss words when you're on the roads. "What, you need to wait till LENT to give those up?" Whatever, lady, you don't know my weaknesses. But you're unlikely to boast about those things, even to yourself.

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Giving up things only to replace them with other things

Classic mistake - give up Facebook, and become a Youtube addict. Give up movies and get hooked on novels. We're just replacing one addictive time-wasting habit with another. Instead, make sure you are not just taking something away, but putting something good in. Every time I feel the hunger, the ache of missing this thing, I will read a few lines of a spiritual book, or say a decade of the Rosary and intercede for someone, or listen to a Gospel song, or listen to a Christian podcast.

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Giving up things as a matter of habit

Ah, it's Lent, time to put away the alcohol and give up meat. Though there is nothing wrong with those particular sacrifices, the danger of doing it out of habit, is that it stops cutting through our layers of sin and reaching our hearts. Any religious practise can lose it's power if we start treating it casually or with indifference. Instead ask God, 'What are the parts of my heart that need to change and come back to you? How can I cut away the things that are stopping me from living a more intentionally loving life?'

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Being really vague about Lenten practices

This year for Lent, I'm going to give up negativity and selfishness. Wonderful! And how are you planning to do that? A lot of people have been sharing Pope Francis' quote about giving up indifference for Lent, saying that our fast from alcohol or candy won't make a difference unless it helps more than yourself. But it may be easy to use that as an excuse NOT to give up anything concrete, or to do anything that is hard on our own mortal flesh. But fasting from harsh words and fasting from food are connected. We are embodied spirits, so when we give up something that we feel a physical desire for, it helps weaken our attachment to mental, emotional and spiritually harmful acts as well. It is basically learning to say no to yourself for a greater good, something most of us don't do very often.

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Forgetting that Lent is about fasting AND prayer AND almsgiving

With all the cool lists of innovative things to give up, we can get overly focussed on what we're giving up, and forget that we should be paying as much attention to coming back to God through our prayer and almsgiving. Of course, all three are connected. We give up unhealthy attachments to the short-term satisfaction of food, drink, and leisure in order to give our hearts more fully to and find a deeper joy in God, and He moves us to pour ourselves out for others, like He did. John Chrysostom who said: “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”

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Doing things that are too easy or too hard

The best practices to choose are the ones you hear God calling you to in prayer, and that are hard enough that they push you and stretch you, but not so hard that they break you. If you're not feeling your sacrifice at all, and not even missing the thing you gave up, maybe you should take on something more. I read a cool idea - ask yourself to complete this sentence: "I am a good Christian except when...." and you will find the area you need to work on.

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Being more focussed on your personal Lenten plan that you miss God's plan for you this Lent

If giving up coffee makes you bad-tempered with your annoying kids, then perhaps consider the possibility that God is asking you to give up your sacrifice for the sake of your family. If an unexpected suffering just happens to you this Lent, perhaps in the form of sickness, pregnancy, a family crisis, anxiety or depression, homesickness, or any other unexpected and uncontrollable factor that makes life a little harder to live, consider embracing that suffering as your Lenten sacrifice and offering it up for the sake of others, rather than feeling frustrated because you haven't taken on any REAL Lenten disciplines. The best sacrifice you can offer to the Lord is the sacrifice of your own plans and will. It is also the hardest sacrifice to make. But the Lord always gives us His sweet gift of peace in return.

Have a holy, grace-filled Lent! 'Lent comes providentially, to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.' Pope Francis. I pray that we will all be awake, living fully the life we were called to live.