Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the three sundays before Lent would already have the priest garbed in Lenten Penitential Purple.
There was an old tradition that on the third Sunday before Lent, the parish priest would take a scroll with the word “Alleluia” written on it and bury it in the church yard, as Alleluia is not said or sung during Lent until our Easter Celebration of Jesus rising from the tomb.
These purple garbed sundays before Lent and the burying of the Alleluia served as reminders to prepare well for the upcoming Lenten season which begins this wednesday with the solemn imposition of Ashes on our foreheads.
Before Wednesday it is important to prepare well for Lent—to devise a Lenten plan for yourself and for your family—to consider what will your Lenten prayer consist of, what will your Lenten fasting consist of, what will your lenten almsgiving consist of. For those three Lenten practices are of great importance; by them, the Holy Spirit prepares us for the new life of Easter—but we need to make some intentional choices.
It is important to prepare well for Lent, so that Lent may prepare you well for Easter. If you don’t spend any time really reflecting upon what God is calling you to this Lent, you’ll likely not get out of Lent what God wants you to get out of it.
And what might that be? Well, sanctification of course. Growth in virtue, growth in charity, depth of prayer, mastery over disordered passions, and learning to more deeply unite yourself to Jesus Christ—to die with him, that you might live with him for fully.
The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, which is the lengthening of days as we approach springtime, the season of new Growth. And any good gardener knows that before the spring planting and growing season can begin, you first need to clear away the clutter, the dead weeds. Or how our houses need spring cleaning as dust and dirt and grime and clutter have accumulated over these last months, and spring cleaning is a bit of work, but it’s undergone so that we can live more happily and blessedly. Cleanliness is next to godliness physically and spiritually.
So, before Wednesday, make a list of your Lenten obligations: stations of the cross, confession, daily spiritual reading, holy week events.
Bug again, those three practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are so important because they help us to become more like Jesus, which is the goal of the entire Christian life. We hear in the Gospel today, “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.” The entire Christian life trains us to be more like our Master, and Lent is a particularly intense, focused, and intentional part of that training.
Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving conform us to Christ because these are activities that the Master himself undertook, We pray because he prayed. We fast because he fasted. We gave because he gave. And by them we adopt his own heart and mind: complete trust in the Father, self-sacrificial love, and humble service of others.
We see in the Gospels how often Jesus withdrew to pray—He communed with the Father constantly. So, too, in prayer, we learn to place God first, just as Jesus did. Prayer reminds us that we can do nothing apart from God. It fosters the humility and dependence on the Lord which is to mark each of our days and interactions. By seeking His will in silence, we gradually align our desires with His.
Jesus fasted. He fasted in the desert for forty days, resisting temptation and preparing for His ministry. So, too, fasting teaches us detachment from worldly goods and helps us gain mastery over our appetites. By denying ourselves some legitimate comfort (like a favorite food), we train in the self-control that is so vital to the Christian life.
How many of our sins have been failures of self-control. Most of them, right? So many sins are failures to control our words, failures to control our bodies, failures to control our impulses and appetites, failures to control our tempers. Practicing self-control is incredibly hard due to our fallen natures. Our gratification-centered culture sure doesn’t help things out, either. So fasting, training in fasting, is so important.
And so too is Almsgiving. The Lord was constantly giving of Himself—healing, feeding, teaching, and ultimately laying down His life for us. Almsgiving challenges us to look beyond ourselves. So too we become more like Christ by caring concretely for our neighbor’s needs. Generosity combats self-centeredness and fosters compassion, reflecting the heart of Jesus who is “rich in mercy”.
St. Peter Chyrsologus, about 1600 years ago wrote of the importance of the three Lenten practices: He wrote: “Prayer, mercy and fasting: These three are one, and they give life to each other. Fasting is the soul of prayer; mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.”
So again, prepare well for Lent this week by considering how you are being led by the Holy Spirit to take these practices seriously. That this season of spiritual growth may be fruitful. That it may truly be a period of purification and enlightenment in the ways of the Lord—and unite us more fully to Him for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
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