Lent is a time of fasting. It sounds like such a sacrifice. It is, but it doesn’t have to be painful. We fast every day. Yes, every day! A fast is a time in which we step back for a moment to give thanks. Don’t you fast for a moment every day just before you eat long enough to say Grace? That’s a fast. Sometimes the fast can come from giving up an hour of your own time to spend it in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament for meditation. Sometimes we fast from conversation in prayer in order to hear God speaking rather than ourselves. There are many things from which one can fast.
Rather than looking back on all those years and trying to measure our conversion and change, just look back one year. Are you different? Is there something distinctly different in how you present God and His miracles to others? Don’t worry if it didn’t happen. You have a whole new opportunity. That’s another gift from God… another grace. Next year at this time you’ll be able to make that distinction… and be just that much closer to God.
I recommend that you read CS Lewis “The Screwtape Letters” over the next forty days and listen carefully to where you fall.
Lent Is Not A Time Of Punishment was originally published on elev8.com
