A couple weeks ago I asked how your Lent was going… if you were sticking to your plan… if you had a plan, that is.
It is time to ask again.
So?
How’s it going?
Select an answer and add a comment in the combox.
How is your Lent so far? II
- Okay. However, I have fallen down in what I planned, but started again. (39%, 755 Votes)
- Very well. I have stuck to my project. I will stick to what I am doing. (26%, 493 Votes)
- Not great. I have not stuck to what I planned to do and am discouraged. (22%, 422 Votes)
- Very well. I have stuck to my project. I am ready to add more. (6%, 110 Votes)
- I didn't have a plan, and won't do anything for Lent. (4%, 71 Votes)
- I didn't have a plan at the beginning, but I did start something. (4%, 70 Votes)
- I didn't have a plan but I will start doing something now. (0%, 8 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,930
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This is my first Lent, I converted from a pseudo-evangelical protestant background.
This Lent is going well. I accidentally ate meat on a Friday but for the most part I have kept Lenten resolutions: to give up coffee and energy drinks and to read & pray at least 30 minutes a day. There were times when this did not occur but the days I have kept to it have greatly increased my love for the church, the Mass and the body of believers.
I have a renewed vigor in my reading and prayer life and I have just recently started attending morning Mass when possible.
(for those that haven’t read it, “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist” was a beautiful read. It’s illumination of Christ’s New Testament fulfillment of Old Testament foreshadowings has profoundly affected my understanding and appreciation of the Eucharist.
I can’t believe there are less than 2 weeks left of Lent, and I have done so little of what I planned to do. One of the main things I wanted to do was some Lenten reading that had been posted on this blog, which consisted of reading the Fathers every day. I started doing it and was really enjoying it, but then got sidetracked. I have it all downloaded to my Kindle, and am taking Holy Week off from work and hoping to get completely caught up before the Triduum.
I’m rather surprised at myself this Lent-I’m still sticking to doing two things daily: at night reading aloud from a psalm book by the Confraternity of the Precious Blood (a ‘psalm a day’) before going to bed, and making the Stations of the Cross at a church in a small college town on Friday.
Usually I ‘start out well but end badly’ when it comes to Lenten practices….not this year, it seems!
I’ve changed a few of the practices I intended for Lent. I was going to read one book, but found another one when on retreat the Saturday after Ash Wednesday that I felt was better. Forming good spiritual practices is just like sticking with any other habit: it takes time to get used to, and sometimes you need to make adjustments, and get back up again after messing up.
I also told myself before Lent started that I would not set myself up for failure by intending to pray the rosary every day. In the past, I’d set that as a New Year’s resolution, a Lenten resolution, or just for the month of October. Well, on Tuesday night before Ash Wednesday, I decided I would get up early and pray the rosary. I haven’t said it at the same time every day, but somehow, by the grace of God, I’ve done it every day of Lent so far, and I think I’ll be able to stick with it once it’s over! Deo Gratias!
I feel discouraged. I’ve largely stuck to the letter of Lenten practices, but I haven’t put my heart and soul into it daily. I feel very out of sorts about Lent this year. I don’t do any additional special prayer or meditation, though I’ve started leading the kids in routine morning prayer in the car en route to school each day. It wasn’t motivated just by Lent. I don’t plan on stopping with Easter. I go to Stations weekly and have taken the kids to a Stations they can do.
I was discouraged until yesterday when I realized how much my chronic pain and disability has changed me for the better. I have not had a special prayer regimen or anything this Lent, in fact have been praying less or in less obvious ways. Yesterday I went to confession and got great advice from the parochial vicar that I trust the most. This Colossians thing (joining our suffering to that of Christ) is difficult. I wonder if I am up to it. We are told we are always given the strength to handle what comes but I am very doubtful of that most of the time. But I look back and see how rocky the road has been and how many flat tires I have discarded by the side. Ahead looks no better. Wow, this Lent thing is intense.
I’ve found it’s easier to give up the thing I gave up than to maintain the additional practice I took on. :-) It feels great when I do the additional practice, though. I’d like to keep that one going after Lent ends.
I’d ask for prayers for a friend of mine who’s having a tough time this Lent.
As usual, what *I* thought this Lent should be about was not what the Lord had planned. My answer to the survey is: I started with a plan and followed it until God showed me the REAL plan, at which point I discarded my first plan and followed the new one. I’m trying to not call this “failure,” but “revised success.”
Oh, my Lent is definitely not going to plan…but I think that’s just God’s way of teaching me humility. I definitely like to overorganize things, anyway, and I need to be occasionally remined that I need to depend on God, rather than on my own efforts.
I voted very well because I have kept the minimum requirements. Had hoped to do more tho. One blessing is that a new catechumen is now driving me to church, eight-some miles round trip, which enables me to attend more of the seasonal services.
Lent has been interesting this year. I have stuck to my resolutions for the most part, better than I did last year. My spiritual director offered to guide me through part of a workbook on the Spiritual Exercises and I am meeting with him one hour each week during Lent. It has been very challenging and intense, but I am experiencing a wonderful amount of spiritual growth. He cautioned me to expect attacks from the dark one and I have experienced those. At first, they were so obvious and so ridiculous that I laughed at the initial temptations. I am no longer laughing, but I am learning a great deal.
Banjo pickin girl, I’m with you. Same here. I hope that you have a beautiful Triduum.
I have been reading the Holy Father’s book this week.
It gets ever more intense. I miss Mass about half the time and haven’t made it to vespers at all either in Advent or this week. But I have to believe that there is a reason for all this. Due to parish upheavals there isn’t a priest to talk to about all this either which makes it much harder. But I immerse myself in the Gospels and the Imitation of Christ which says repeatedly we are not to depend on any human beings for consolation (including priests).
I have subscribed to Magnificat, starting in May and will use that plus the Office of Readings at noon for my patristic readings that I am lacking as a convert.
I love Lent but my whole life is Lentish in many ways. Everybody else just joins me now! Next week, everybody have a doughnut on me! And a danish! And extra french fries at lunch!
Benedetta, thank you. I appreciate your thoughtful posts.
This Lent has gone all right. I think part of the problem is that I set the bar rather high five years ago during my first Lent. Anyway, I decided I would fast on Wednesdays as well as my usual Fridays and eat meat once a day. I was also going to focus on going to Mass everyday as far as possible. Going to Mass has been doing well, though I missed two days this week (the one week I DIDN’T want to miss!). I’ve kept to eating meat only once a day and have only broken my no-sweets rule twice (hey, it was my birthday and my husband’s going-away party). However, I kept forgetting to fast on Wednesdays. I finally remembered to do so today. My prayer life has been slipping but that’s an ongoing problem. Anyone else feel like sometimes they’re just banging their heads against a wall? Cuz that’s how I feel some days as far as good resolutions go.
I fell pretty hard this Lent and felt very discouraged. Beginning this Sunday I began with a new vigor and have in a way ramped it up (beginning the Angelus devotion this week). Confession yesterday was one of those very powerful grace filled events. i alsmost did not make it. Arrived at 11 for an 11:30 Confession time and the line was the longest I have ever seen and did not get in, then arrived at 430 for a 5 pm confession time and the line was still huge, but — thanks to God — I got in and was able to come back to a state of grace.
I’ve had mixed results this Lent. I took on a number of things (both things not to do and things to do), and have kept some very well and others not so well. I’ve only really failed to fulfill one resolution. Overall, though, I think it’s my best Lent in a while, thanks be to God.
I feel pretty good about what I consider to be my first Lent. In addition to increasing daily prayer and listening to Fr. Z’s LENTCAzT, I listened to/attended two Lenten retreats, Stations of the Cross each Friday, Bible Study, Holy Rosary several times a week, fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, and confession twice (ugh). I’m also reading Jesus of Nazareth but not sure I’ll finish by Easter.
Dear Banjo Pickin Girl,
I also suffer from severe, chronic pain and disability (intractable migraines and other pain issues). Every Lent I would get discouraged because I felt like I didn’t do enough or would fail in my plans (I’m just not always up to it), until it finally dawned on me that my Lent never ends. Thats quite a coincidence when I was read your post! I don’t think Christ would expect us to suffer additional mortification during Lent, although it can’t hurt but I don’t think its vitally necessary. I try to unite my suffering with the Cross each morning during the year by praying the Morning Offering. I’m sure you’ve come to know the incredible redemptive power in suffering, and that in itself has been a gift. Stay strong, we’ll all understand it completely some day.
I’ve been ill for most of Lent and didn’t accomplish most of the things I wanted to do. I’m just now getting back on my feet, but to be honest, I think sometimes I used my illness as an excuse.
Back on track, I know I could have, and should have done more. I am another that just started Jesus of Nazareth (Holy Week) and may not finish.
I have mixed results, I added daily spiritual reading, which went well but I’m a reader by nature so that is not a sign of great discipline. I added a daily Lenten rosary, and managed to do it about every other day. I cut out meat, which I did miss, and fell short a few times. Overall not too bad but I feel very much like a work in progress.
pj, thank you. Now I have a sore throat and envision spending the weekend in bed! But yes, it is part of God’s plan. I get frustrated at church when I hear about mortification from our priests. One tells me to “rinse your mouth out with salt water or drink tea for mortification (he hates tea and I love it).” I think, well, I have pain that would have you blubbering and sucking your thumb, how’s that for mortification, buddy. And after that I get really uncharitable!
I am a convert and all this redemptive suffering thing is very new to me. I wish I had a priest or somebody with a lot of experience to talk to sometimes. I have found that the elderly folks are the best, having been through it all already.
I hope I will meet you by the river under the tree that is for the healing of the nations. We will chew the leaves and go, hmmmm, tastes like stevia…
I’ve had the best Lent I can remember: what I added to my original ideas turned out to be very worthwhile, what I had decided to give up turned out to be painful, and then last week I came down with the first cold I’ve had in five years. Working through fatigue and discomfort is not the norm for me. One night I woke with a cough, got up to get a glass of water and my husband said, “Why don’t you take some cough medicine?” I replied, “Because I forgot it existed!” The next day at Mass I started coughing during the Consecration, so I begged Our Lady of Lourdes to make the coughing stop so as not to be a distraction to the priest and the small congregation. It stopped immediately and did not return for the remainder of the Mass. Such minor nudges toward Mary and her Son have occurred throughout these forty days, and I’ve had a significant intention to offer up penances for, so practicing the Presence of God has become more habitual.