Here is a prayer by St. Claude de la Colombière to begin your Lent on the right foot.
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Lent comes and goes each year, but we don’t always utilize this season to the best of our ability. We have grand plans, but in the end, fail by the second week!
The good news is that we can begin again and renew our practice of Lent, even if we have failed in the past. We can’t control the past or future, but we can “seize the day” and do what we can to improve our spiritual life.
St. Claude de la Colombière wrote a little prayer that takes this viewpoint, pledging to God that this Lent will be different, looking forward in hope to what we can accomplish with him at our side.
My God, forgive me my past faults; I have never yet observed Lent like a true Christian; perhaps I never rightly understood what it was, nor to what the honor of being a child of your holy Church obliges me, but I am determined this year to begin to do my duty. Were I to stand alone, you would have one faithful servant; I will not be ashamed of doing what I ought, and it shall not be by my example that negligence shall creep in. Too long have I lived the life of a sinner, I will this Lent begin to lead that of a penitent. Perhaps my life may end with this penance of forty days, and that they are all that remain to me.
I hope that when you behold both heart and body thus humbled and afflicted, you will have compassion on me and will pardon me. Render this season still greater than I hope, O my God! You to whom be all the glory. Amen!
