What Are You Giving Up for Lent??

That's the question we were always asked by our peers in our Catholic grade school growing up. But what does it mean to deny ourselves something for Lent? I do the same types of things -- give up chocolate (I am a legitimate chocoholic), give up sweets, abstain from all those good foods that I love, etc. And fasting from good food is certainly something that we should do, but sometimes crucifying the flesh does not always benefit spiritually if we don't have the right orientation. So this year, I've decided to do something more for the Lord. I am crucifying my spirit and letting Christ root out those little vices I have within me.

Recently, I've been struggling with being judgmental toward others. Little thoughts about people, just things that are kind of mean. It's so easy to judge, to think less of a person to make yourself feel better about your own vices. But I just watched the Youtube clip of Danielle Rose that Julian just posted below. Wow!! What an inspirational woman!!! What a tremendous understanding of the Eucharist and the meaning of God's sacrifice! Christ did not die so I could sit here and justify my own faults by thinking poorly of others. He died and left us the Eucharist -- Himself -- so I could be united to all souls in HIM, so that He could give me new life and make me a new creation. And if He does it for me, He does it for all. How we could hold any bitterness toward each other knowing what Christ does for us?

This Lent, let's give up resentment toward each other. Let us work to right our wrongs and let Christ enter His light into our life in a more powerful, lasting way. Let us remember how to love again, in the most full sense of the meaning of love. I resolve to meditate on the meaning of the Holy Cross and to let the most beautiful words of the Prophet Isaiah (43:25) penetrate my soul: "I am, I am he that blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."