A Season of Sacrifice - Lisa's Two Cents

It’s Ash Wednesday and every year on this day, I find myself diving deeper and deeper into the Lenten season ahead. I’m not sure if it’s age or the more you learn spiritually every passing year, but you realize how precious life is and how temporary our life here on Earth is. As a Catholic, Lent is a time to grow in faith and grow closer to God. We prepare and reflect on the great sacrifice Jesus made for us. We repent, turn away from sin and seek to change our own life to become more Christ-centered.

I’ve shared this many times before, but we have the Hallow app and use it religiously (no pun intended). I LOVE the daily reflections – which serve as mini “homilies” on the daily Gospel reading. The other day, Jeff Cavins (the individual who writes the daily reflections) talked about a Latin phrase – “Momento Mori” translated “remember you must die“. That phrase has really stuck with me the past couple days – today particularly. While morbid, it is a reminder of our Earthly lives fleeting nature. It is also an important reminder to think about our purpose here and help focus on our hope and desire for eternal life. How can we get to Heaven?

This year I saw a couple great ideas on social media for self denial during the Lenten season to make room for God. Her Catholic Life highlighted 9 areas to deny yourself and I will share them below:

Comfort: think of what we naturally seek such as warmth, food, soft beds and try replacing these comforts with cold showers, simple eating or giving up a favorite Starbucks drink.
Noise: Music, social media, email, podcasts – how can we turn down the world’s volume and make more room for prayer, reflecting, time with family. This may be getting off social media, saying the rosary when driving rather than listening to music, spending time at Eucharistic Adoration. I know I struggle here. I LOVE listening to music, but it’s really important to start filling that time with prayer.
Vanity: Less focus on how we look and how we’re perceived by others. Our worth isn’t our outward beauty, but being good daughters of Christ. Ways to deny yourself – fast from buying new clothes, offer up not feeling your best as an act of humility and/or embracing our natural beauty.
Control: Learning to surrender and trust God during times we are not in control. This could be, choosing to remain silent in an argument and offering up any interruptions to God.
Excess: In a world that seeks more, more, more – choose less and make room for God. Try to avoid instant gratification, give up expensive purchases and donate instead, and fast from unnecessary snacks
Attention: We all want to be seen, felt and heard – instead try to embrace humility (the Litany of Humility is an extremely powerful prayer.), let others take credit instead of seeking recognition and serve others in secret.
Distraction: We are constantly keeping ourselves busy – learn to embrace the silence. You can deny yourself distraction by putting your phone away for the evening and spending time with family, remove apps that take too much of your attention, swap entertainment for quiet prayer.
Busyness: Productivity can become an idol – it does not define our worth. We can deny ourselves by saying no more often to unnecessary commitments, making Sundays a true day of rest and spend a whole day moving intentionally (not rushing)
Self-Reliance: Stop relying on ourselves and start surrendering to God. We can learn to pray before making decisions, ending our day in prayer and asking for help when we need it.

Such great ideas and so many that are so relatable that I want to try and implement into my life. Who knows, these habits may extend well beyond the Lenten season, which is the goal right?!

Wishing you so many blessings during this Easter season and may God bless you today and always…