Tuesday, the first Week of Lent

   As we continue on this journey called Lent, we need to reflect on our efforts and how well we are doing.  It’s important that we don’t allow Satan to draw our attention away from our task on onto worldly matters.  This is a time for growing spiritually and we should strive to put less importance on the everyday minutia that distracts us from the really important things.  The enemy likes nothing more that to convince us that we don’t have time for this silliness of penance and devotion to our crucified Lord.  There are too many important matters that need our attention.

   If we look upon our Lord on the cross we will know that our efforts are not in vain.  Jesus died a terribly painful death to pay the price for our sins.  He gave up His glory for a time to do for us what we were incapable of doing for ourselves; provide us a path to salvation.  We can’t truly contemplate the gift He gave us without understanding that He did it because of His love for us.  We strive during this forty days to recognize His sacrifice and in some small ways, join our sacrifice to His.

   So, how are we doing?  It’s important to celebrate the progress you have made.  We can never achieve what we truly want to achieve but we can make progress in that direction.  This isn’t to say that we should be proud of our successes; pride in ourselves leads to sin.  We must acknowledge that without the help of God there would be no successes.  But it is very appropriate to recognize them and thank God for helping us achieve some progress in our efforts.  We must also pray for His continued support in all that we do.

  While we are looking at our successes we need to also see where we have been less than successful.  Have you slipped in your chosen sacrifice?  Most of us have or will have times when we aren’t successful in our efforts.  Perhaps you determined to give up sweets but found yourself munching on a donut from the office meeting this morning.  Maybe you forgot and had that burger for lunch last Friday even though Fridays are meatless.  Don’t beat yourself up too bad, we all have our weak moments.  Most importantly don’t let Satan convince you that you’ve already failed so why continue to try.  Know that we are all far from perfect.  We must also have the confidence that God recognizes our efforts and is pleased with them.  He loves us not only when we succeed but we fail and try harder the next time.

  So celebrate your successes and recognize the weak times.  If we do these things, we can truly have a blessed Lent and grow closer to our Lord.