Best Mortification For Lent

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One year I gave up gossip & I rarely revert back to the practice.

My pastor instructs us that whatever we choose to do, if we are sincere about holiness, we should be willing to incorporate it into our lifestyle beyond Lent & to choose something with that in mind. Therefore, choosing to give up something that is getting in the way of your spiritual progress is ideal.

I try to give up one thing because it is **bad **for me to continue & to give up another because it is good. For example, chocolate is obviously a good 🙂 . I give it up for these 40 days in order to practice prayerful sacrifice & to remind myself that all the goods we have here on earth are nothing compare to the ultimate good… Jesus! Then, as my body learns it does not need chocolate to exist 🙂 , I can enjoy chocolate moderately again after Lent… rejoicing in the goodness He bestows upon us & looking forward even more to the eternal reward that I may be blessed to enjoy!
 
Yeah - WhiteDove and I are hardcore! 😉

I’m also giving up my table wine for Lent. Now THAT is scary. :eek:
Adding: Stations of the Cross and adoration during the week. Special Novenas.
And I’m still trying to figure out who gets my big jar of change this year. Its someone different every Christmas and Lent.

Two more days WhiteDove!!!
 
Our priest once said don’t take on so much that you fail before mid lent, which is what I did for years.

So I try to practice a virtue like being patient throughout Lent then the more I practice that I hope to become patient. The point is to take on something to make yourself a better person.
Fasting from sweets, eating smaller meals or simply three meals a day is wonderful because you can draw closer to Christ in the desert that way.

But I do try to do something to bring Christ’s Kingdom closer to the world we live in.
 
I almost forgot… the very best thing to give up… television! My dad used to force this on the whole family & we sure did gripe. As I look back now, it was one of the greatest gifts he ever gave me. Although my household was as tv-addicted as the next, I am not very attached to television… I believe it was only because of this very wise forced fast that my dad put into place.
 
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IPTgrad:
I almost forgot… the very best thing to give up… television!
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But if I give up television, I can’t watch EWTN 😦 😦 😦

DaveBj
 
Pardon my English, I am a Spanish speaking member.
I want to share with you that I also give up chocolate during Lent, but as Easter gets nearer, I have to confess that a big part of my happiness comes from the thought of eating chocolate again! How can you reassume eating chocolate without overdoing it? My spiritual director once suggested that I ate only one piece of chocolate on Sundays during Lent. He said it is better to learn to control what one eats than to stop eating something altogether. But it did not feel right to me to eat even a tiny bit of chocolate during Lent. It felt like cheating on God. What do you think?
Alma
 
  1. Give up warm water in your morning shower. :eek: Painful, yes, but gratifying, especially if you keep it a secret. My wife doesn’t even know that I do this sometimes, and she is usually just a few feet away drying her hair.
  2. When you get drive-thru fast food for lunch, order whatever sounds really good to you and give it to a homeless person. Then pray the Rosary instead of eating lunch.
 
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puzzleannie:
the basics, fasting, abstinence, prayer, almsgiving. 2 small meals a day, one larger meal, nothing between meals (for those whose health permits), no meat (sundays are exempt from these penitential practices). finding a way to give more, perhaps to food bank or other hunger related charity. prayer, stations, rosary, more fervent prayer, more attentive prayer, more faithfulness in prayer. increase quality, not quantity.
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I think physical exercise too is a good mortification. Most of us need more of it. It is so difficult to find the time to do it. The blood sweat and tears can be offered up to God, and it is a helthy mortification that helps purge the senses of their toxins and excesses from the past. And prayers can be siad while doing it…I say the rosary when I run.
 
I can’t say this is the best mortification for lent, but it is the one that we chose this year. We disconnected our cable TV company. Easter Monday we will have Satellite TV so that we can receive EWTN. So during lent we have no service of any kind. The savings will go to CRS. We do have movies, VCR, but only use it for our exercise sessions.

One year I gave up coffee. That was actually harder then the cigarettes I gave up 8 years ago. Have not smoked since.

I plan to attend our Parish Mission this week. We live in the next town, so it is difficult for me to get there every evening. But I will try.
 
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