Lent and Joe Biden

Today I was reminded that Lent is a time not just to make a sacrifice
for God but to make a meaningful sacrifice.  We should be transformed
in the next 40 days into a more perfect person.  Into a person who is
more like Christ.  Giving up chocolate is a difficult thing but how
does that prepare you for Easter?  I do believe that giving something
up can prepare you for Easter but it needs to be done very
intentionally.  Maybe everytime you reach for a Twix and remember you
can’t have it, you pray for someone you don’t particularly like.  After
40 days of this something will definitely have changed in you.  Of
course you don’t just have to give up something.  Fr. Jaime put it that
we need to do something that we find joy in and is life-giving.  Kraft
and I are still trying to decide what to do as a family during Lent but
in general we would like to be more intentional with our time.  Less
TV.  More prayer.  Less fast food.  More cooking.  Less criticism.  More confession.  Less negativity.  More love.

Back
when I was at Notre Dame, I was so spoiled.  I remember being so
excited for Lent every year.  At Notre Dame it is so easy to really put
a lot of time into your spiritual life.  There’s a bajillion
Masses everyday.  Prayer services all the time.  A really great
community.  Beautiful prayer spaces.

I wish I was spiritually in a
place where I was excited for Lent again.  Instead, I had forgotten
today was Ash Wednesday until I was flipping through the channels on TV
and saw Joe Biden with ashes on his head.  I know I need to work on my
spiritual life when Joe Biden is what gets me thinking about Lent.
Well, that’s what Lent is for.  Improvement.  Spiritual improvement.
Soul boot camp.

Just a quick side story.  Possibly my favorite story
about my mom.  She has had bangs for as long as I can remember.
Bangs are pretty tricky for someone putting ashes on your forehead if
you don’t get them out of the way.  She never ran into any problems
with this until we moved to The Woodlands.  Fr. Domec is a no-nonsense
kind of guy so he’s not about to go moving people’s bangs out of
the way to get to their forehead.  So when my mom was up to get ashes,
he just put the cross on her nose.  My mom was mortified but she
couldn’t do anything about it.  She just had to walk around the rest of
the day with a smudgy cross on her nose.  Oh man, God sure does have a
sense of humor.  Rest assured every year after that my mom has pinned
back her bangs.

Happy Lent, friends.  May it be a fruitful one.