Our spiritual lives are like a three-legged stool—and you know, lose one leg at the stool tumbles over. The three legs of our spiritual life, practiced most attentively during Great Lent, are fasting, prayer, and charity. Fasting is a means to greater hope. Prayer is a means to greater faith. Charity is a means to greater love.
Fasting during the Lenten season (as well as on Wednesdays, Fridays and other fast days) is a spiritual discipline. It involves abstaining from meat and fish products—basically vegan, except shellfish are allowed—and alcohol except on Saturday and Sunday. It is easy to stuff ourselves with a lot of these allowable foods, but to follow the spirit and discipline, we should watch our quantities as well. This awareness helps us focus on God and helps us realize our dependence on His blessings. More importantly, we should be more intentional about not sinning. Watch out for pride, envy, gossip and greed in particular. Jesus did not say “if you fast” but “when you fast.” (Matthew 6:16) He assumes we do, so we should. If you cannot keep the strict fast, at least do some form of the fast.
He also prayed to His Father. “Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12) We should devote more time and attention to our daily personal prayer life. If you have a prayer book, use it…daily. St. Paul admonishes us to “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) The Jesus Prayer is one prayer that can help us achieve that. Pray it repeatedly: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” Jesus instructed His disciples how to pray. We call it the Lord’s Prayer. That we should pray many times a day. Attend as many of the Church services as you can during Great Lent and Holy Week. That is one way to improve your prayer life.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the Lenten journey should help us focus on the teachings of Christ, the heart of which is love. As such, we should focus on other people’s needs and respond to their needs with acts of kindness and charity. The money we save on food because we are fasting can easily be distributed to the poor through food banks and charitable causes.
“So,” as St. Paul said in 1 Corinthian 13, “faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
--Adapted from St. Catherine Religious Education Team, Greenwood Village, CO