Lenten Campaign 2025
This content is free of charge, as are all our articles.
Support us with a donation that is tax-deductible and enable us to continue to reach millions of readers.
Lent is a time when we are invited by the Church to abstain from meat on Fridays and to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Some of us may even freely make a decision to abstain from chocolate or sweets for the entirety of Lent, or to fast more intentionally on every Friday.
Whichever Lenten discipline we decide is right for us, we need to remember that these physical choices should remind us of a deeper spiritual reality.
Abstaining from sin
The Roman Missal provides the following prayer on the Monday of the Second Week of Lent that gets right to the heart of the issue:
O God, who have taught us to chasten our bodies
for the healing of our souls, enable us, we pray,
to abstain from all sins,
and strengthen our hearts
to carry out your loving commands.
Through our lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The Church reminds us plainly that disciplining our bodies should lead to the "healing of our souls."
This is something we often forget, as it is tempting to only see Lenten disciplines as burdens. While they certainly can be difficult, the suffering they create should not be seen as arbitrary.
Instead, they should lead us to reflect upon our own lives and which areas we need to grow in and what sins we need to confess.
Choose a sin to work at eliminating
It should be noted that since none of us where immaculately conceived, it is nearly impossible to abstain from all sin while on this earth.
We shouldn't take the nuclear approach and try to abolish every sinful tendency in our lives. If we try to do that, we will quickly discover how sinful we are and likely give up the entire process.
What we could try to do during Lent is more modest: for every Lenten discipline we engage in, choose one sin to actively work on.
We are weak and frail human beings, but the good news is that God's grace is an unfathomable ocean. The key for us is to be open to that ocean and to lift up the flood gates to our heart.
Once we are able to do that, God can give us the courage necessary to face any obstacle and to slowly remove the influences of sin in our lives.
As we progress throughout Lent, may we remember this simple reality and try to also abstain from particular sins during this season of renewal.
