Every year, during this time, we are invited to focus on the three pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We know these pillars well and how to put them into practice. However, most of us go through the motion of doing these simply to fulfill the expectations of the Lenten season. Our prayers, our fasting and our almsgiving become traditional practices we do each year without fully appreciating the Paschal Mystery we are commemorating.
During Lent, we try to share the suffering of Jesus through meditation and prayers, doing the Stations of the Cross, taking the sacrament of penance, fasting and almsgiving. If we do any or all of these just to observe tradition, they can end up as empty practices that do not please our Lord Jesus Christ.
How can we avoid this from happening? Let's start with our hearts!!!
Prayer has to come from our hearts. If our prayers consist of a mechanical recitation of “formulas” that we learned from our youth and that we say merely out of habit, they can end up being meaningless. The Our Father taught by Jesus to his disciples, as well as the Hail Mary which we recite as parts of the Holy Rosary are examples of this.
There are many other ways of praying during Lent such as the Lectio Divina based on the bible or the Adoration prayer. What is important is for us to put ourselves in full communion with the object of our prayer. When we feel that we are one with God, like Jesus felt when He was praying at Gethsemani, it means that we are praying with our hearts.
To pray with our hearts, we need to get rid of many things that have settled there. Our sins, our bad feelings, our worries and our difficulties can become a burden preventing us from having a disposition to welcome Jesus in our hearts. Fasting, one of the most ancient practices, can help clean our hearts. Once cleansed, we are ready to welcome Jesus. Fasting also helps us to understand how important our spiritual life is. If our body cannot stay without food for long, the same applies to our souls. We need to be spiritually nourished by the Word of God. With fasting, we get to share the suffering of Jesus who willingly took it for our sake.
Finally, during this Lenten season, we cannot forget our commitment to love others who are suffering. Almsgiving is the expression of an open, missionary heart eager to reach out to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus loves the poorest, the needy and the least amongst us in a special way. This season of Lent grants all of us that grace-filled period to express our commitment as Christians and disciples of Jesus Christ.
As Xaverian Missionaries working in Thailand, we promise to pray not only for our friends, our relatives, our confreres, our benefactors but, above all, those we are serving. May God help all of us to have new hearts, ready to welcome Jesus and to serve our brothers and sisters in His name.
