Your question reminded me of my first Lent as a Catholic. In addition to setting up a complicated daily prayer schedule, I also decided to give up caffeine for Lent – not just soda or tea or candy, mind you, but all caffeine. By the time Easter rolled around, I was spiritually wrung out, half-sick from the cold-turkey caffeine withdrawal, and in no mood for celebration. Needless to say, in the Lents since I have mostly just done what the Church requires and little else. I’m not offering this as a model for you to follow, but giving a cautionary tale of the consequences of well-intentioned but misguided over-zealousness in penitential practices.
This is why I recommend to you that, however much you want to “make the most” of Lent, you do not try to do too much. Do what the Church requires (no meat on the Fridays of Lent, fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday), focus on whatever it is your priest suggested you focus on, perhaps read a “seasonal” book or watch a “seasonal” movie (I’ve given some suggestions below), and resolve not to try to run a spiritual marathon before you’ve run a spiritual mile.
By the way, in noting the suggestions listed below, keep in mind that they are only suggestions and that I have included one or two that some may find surprising. I can only say that they are
suggestions, based solely on my own opinion, and that I’ve found all that are listed to be personally edifying. In the case of the book to be released in March, that is based on my reading of the first book in the series.
Recommended resources:
Article:
Lent is Old English for Spring by Jimmy Akin (
sidebar)
Movies:
The Mission
The Passion of the Christ
Into Great Silence
Books:
To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed
Jesus of Nazareth (Part Two) by Benedict XVI (released March 10)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (yes, really!)
