By Judith Costello
Lent always comes at the perfect time — doesn’t it?! Just when my self-discipline is failing, just when the teenagers in the house are getting “testy,” just when everyone feels miserable as yet another cold front moves in — Lent begins. Now, some will say that the call to “fasting, abstinence and penance” just adds to the gloom, but that is not so.
Lent offers us a time to reign in the whining and toughen up! We are to follow the noble way of sacrifice.
I was thinking about the toughness needed to be Christian. It’s not really like being in training with the Marines. But we do need to put our lives in order. Generally speaking, the modern world is “dis-ordered.” We are prone to put feelings ahead of reason, pleasure ahead of prayer, self-satisfaction ahead of sacrifice. That is backward from the command of the Gospels.
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