Not only does a really good Lent lead to an especially joyful Easter, but, even more importantly, it helps us grow spiritually at a time when, in most parts of the world, the oncoming Spring and also the inspirational celebrations of Holy Week are also working for us.

Inspired by Jesus’ forty days in the desert before he assumed his public life, and beginning on Ash Wednesday, a really good Lent consists of doing something in the three traditional areas—prayer, fasting, almsgiving (cf. Mt.6:1-18). Of course, counting our time and energy, whatever we do is some form of sacrifice.

In terms of prayer, there are two basic options—public and private.

Public prayer is with others; or it is something to which we go—to church or some other holy place (every day or X times a week). One might make the Stations of the Cross. A person might participate in a Lenten lecture series, or make a pilgrimage.

Private prayer means time—giving God time (at least fifteen to thirty minutes every day).

The time can be spent in personal (from the heart) prayer, formal prayer like the Rosary, an examination of conscience, quiet time (to see where it goes, see our last two weekly thoughts), or spiritual reading (such as a chapter a day of one of the four gospels, or even The Fifth Gospel, which I have tired to give you).

Fasting means giving up food or something else.

There are numerous good reasons to do this. Giving things up is a way to be more charitable, to appreciate better the plight of those who have less, to learn not to take things for granted, to test and see if things are too important, to learn to live with less, and to practice self-control. Giving up food and allowing ourselves to feel hunger is a way to experience our dependency and our mortality, and once we become a little leaner, we will think better. In almost every case, to give something up for Lent is to have a happier Easter when finally we get there, and to experience the beautiful truth that the joy in life comes not because we always have the best of everything but rather because we don’t!

Almsgiving means charity.

Although almsgiving is most obvious when we give money, it also involves the giving of our time and energy, and even of ourselves.

We could take on a special project for the benefit of certain others, a special group, or the entire community. Taking on a clean-up, a fund-raiser, or a letter-writing campaign, for example.

We could commit ourselves to use words to build people up. We could commit ourselves to look for opportunities to say something encouraging to someone we would not otherwise notice. This way, by the end of Lent, we have taught ourselves to be more sensitive to those around us.

Beyond all this, Lent is a great time take on a reform of our lives if this might be needed, or to reconcile with others, whether this means that we must ask for forgiveness or give it.