A Two-Part Plan for Lent
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A Two-Part Plan for Lent: Human and Divine
The most sacrificial and most difficult Lent I ever had was when my spiritual director said, “Mike, your life is out of control. You need to live a well-ordered and balanced life this Lent.”
But to live a balanced life, we can’t just cut out one bad habit. We need a two-fold plan to achieve this: a human plan and a divine plan. Today we’ll talk about the human plan. Tomorrow, the divine or spiritual plan.
As humans God designed us to need specific good things in our life:
a. Physical goods such as sleep, food, drink and exercise
b. Relationships with Family and Friends
c. Achievement or Accomplishment – that is, the way we way we make the world a better place
d. Truth
e. Beauty
Since grace builds on nature, let’s take these one by one and get our human life in order for Lent.
The first thing we need to put in place is a disciplined plan to get adequate sleep, take the time to prepare and eat properly and to exercise.
So what changes do you need to make in this realm?
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We need achievement or accomplishment to be happy and holy.
Accomplishment is the good of knowing we have helped to:
● To make the world a better place;
● We have attained some excellence;
● Or we helped others attain some excellence
It is a great joy to know we made a difference.
Too often however, we try to do too much, we become too busy or we spend time doing things that just don’t need to be done. And when we spend our lives this way it doesn’t result in making a difference for good and we are dissatisfied.
In what ways have our work consumed too much of our time and attention. Where is it infringing on other necessary good things. What limits do I need to put into place?
You can make the world a better place through your profession, inside the home and out. But are you pursuing it for this purpose?
Don’t forget the spiritual works of mercy: Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, as well as forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently.
The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
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The ultimate way we make the world a better place is through relationships.
The greatest way we cultivate excellence in ourselves and others is through friendship with God – which is prayer and by friendship with others:
● By spending time with them
● Affirming what is best in them
● Talking with them about what is most important in life
Being consumed with work, overscheduled, and then vegging with news, sports and entertainment may be the biggest obstacles to relationships.
God thought that it was so important that He made time for relationship with Him and with others the most important Law for the Israelites – keep Holy the Sabbath.
God’s plan is for us to set aside Sunday for Mass, relationship with family and friends and prayer. But we have turned Sunday into the day we get ready for Monday.
Let us reclaim Sunday this Lent.
Every Sunday of Lent, invite family and friends to share a meal, talk, share life together and pray the Rosary.
So what will your discipline of prayer and friendship look like this Lent?
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We need truth to be happy and holy.
Truth is the ability of the intellect to grasp or understand reality accurately. Once the intellect possesses truth, then the mind is satisfied and we can rest in delight.
We however are undisciplined in our pursuit of truth and knowledge and we settle for a cheap counterfeit of truth in the form of being “well informed” by the news or scrolling on You-tube.
This lack of discipline in regard to truth dulls the mind and makes the soul anxious and dissatisfied as we endure “Breaking News, Breaking News…”
Instead, this Lent discipline your mind and pursue intellectually challenging projects rather than mind numbing news and media.
Because its Lent – focus on the greatest truth – that which God has revealed.
For example:
Pick a large chunk of the Old Testament or New Testament and read it carefully with a guide or commentary.
Read the Catechism carefully for 40 days. I have a podcast and video series on the Catechism you can find at School of Faith.com
Watch Fulton Sheen’s 30 part series on the Catechism
Read C.S Lewis carefully
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We need beauty to reach happiness and holiness.
Beauty makes me recognize how true, good and beautiful God and His world are. The experience of beauty should cause an expression of gratitude to God because of what he has made and just how good he is.
Does what we watch, listen to or experience surprise you with the truth and goodness of what God made or the purpose of our life to become like God and our destiny of heaven?
If not, then we are settling for a counterfeit that is really cheap junk.
For Lent I’m going to sit down every night and look through a coffee table book my friends gave me full of paintings from the Vatican. That’s my plan to pursue beauty.
This Lent you should make a disciplined pursuit of beauty too.
Every day, take a walk outside.
Listen to beautiful music. Gregorian Chant or Mozart’s requiem or instrumental music. If you like guitar, I highly recommend the instrumental band Covet.
Read beautiful writing. The Count of Monte Cristo of Les Mis
Or watch a game and be surprised by the excellence of the athletes rather than only caring about who wins.
My personal favorite form of beauty is hanging out with my grandkids. Little kids are the best example of happiness we have, so let’s be childlike and balance our lives with happiness and beauty this Lent.