I don't like Lent!

[105lynne]

Lent…I understand it’s an opportunity to grow in faith and practice sacrifice, which is so good for my spirituality. But…I dread it every year!! I want to look forward to it. Anyone else feel this way about Lent? Can anyone offer me some encouraging words to get me “pumped” for it?

 

[Deo_Gratias42]

The only thing I don’t like is that we suppress the organ. Aside from that, I look forward to its penitential nature, the constant reminder that Hell exists and people go there, the focus put on sanctification and mortification, penance the focus on suffering and Christ Crucified. It’s all really good stuff, but then again I have a very strong melancholic temperament, and grow very tired of the happy clappy “all you need is luv” mentality that goes around.

 

[Aggies08]

Hmm… I try and think of it as what I can offer God, rather than what I’m denying myself. Perhaps that mindset could help?

 

[Mummsie]

I see Lent as an opportunity to change. Maybe getting rid of a bad habit, maybe creating a new good habit. It only takes 21 days to establish a habit. With the commitment of Lent, I’ve found positive changes that have continued in my life. Hope this helps:shrug:

 

[Justicia_et_Pax]

Lent…I understand it’s an opportunity to grow in faith and practice sacrifice, which is so good for my spirituality. But…I dread it every year!! I want to look forward to it. Anyone else feel this way about Lent? Can anyone offer me some encouraging words to get me “pumped” for it?

Lent is my worst time of year and a triggering time for me. I dread it and fear it.

I find checking in with priests I have known and asking them and others to pray for me helps. Lent is our opportunity to walk alongside our Lord in a way that the disciples never quite managed to. We are invited to come and know Him deeply. Think of it as an invitation from the Beloved to get to know Him better

 

[Prairie_Rose]

I try to do MORE during Lent, than less… More devotional reading, more Scripture study, attending Stations of the Cross, more prayer…and by doing so, I find I have less time for meaningless stuff…not as much TV, less secular reading. etc…

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Lent…I understand it’s an opportunity to grow in faith and practice sacrifice, which is so good for my spirituality. But…I dread it every year!! I want to look forward to it. Anyone else feel this way about Lent? Can anyone offer me some encouraging words to get me “pumped” for it?

There are three aspects to Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

It sounds like you may be focusing on the fasting part (when you talk about sacrifice). Perhaps this would be a good year to focus on one of the other parts like prayer.

Maybe this is the year to go on a Lenten retreat or attend Mass during the week, or practice some other form of prayer. What is there that wouldn’t seem like a sacrifice, but something to look forward to, something positive that would allow you to walk more closely with the Lord?

 

[Robert_Sock]

I find Lent to be an excellent time of year where we prepare ourselves for Easter. I value it highly. (It’s a good time for so many things, like for Matzo Ball soup!)

 

[Zekariya]

Lent…I understand it’s an opportunity to grow in faith and practice sacrifice, which is so good for my spirituality. But…I dread it every year!! I want to look forward to it. Anyone else feel this way about Lent? Can anyone offer me some encouraging words to get me “pumped” for it?

What specifically causes you to dread it? Do you dread meatless Fridays? I get excited because I look forward to Easter: the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ.

 

[CalCatholic]

Lent is my worst time of year and a triggering time for me. I dread it and fear it.

I find checking in with priests I have known and asking them and others to pray for me helps. Lent is our opportunity to walk alongside our Lord in a way that the disciples never quite managed to. We are invited to come and know Him deeply. Think of it as an invitation from the Beloved to get to know Him better

I love Lent! It is a great time for spiritual reflection and re-generation.

**"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.

And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him…" (Luke 4:1-2, 13)**

Jesus was tested and prevailed, which helped prepare him for his public ministry.

Jesus also sets an example for us, during our testing and ‘time in the wilderness.’

I love to read these verses and reflect on them and then look to my own ‘forty days’ of fasting and temptation ‘in the wilderness’ during Lent!

 

[jmjconder]

I used to feel the same…until two things happened.

I began not to “give up” something. My penance for Lent was to do something - say a Rosary, mind my words, be still every day…and at the end of Lent my habit became natural.

The second thing was when I heard or read a well known spiritual advisors say that if you wish to live a life of faithfulness that leads to eternal salvation - read one version of the Passion every day as part of your prayer life.

I once dreaded Lent…now I look forward to it! I pray the same for you. You have already taken the hardest first step - honesty.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

Lent…I understand it’s an opportunity to grow in faith and practice sacrifice, which is so good for my spirituality. But…I dread it every year!! I want to look forward to it. Anyone else feel this way about Lent? Can anyone offer me some encouraging words to get me “pumped” for it?

Know what you mean. There has been too much going on in such a short time. Thanksgiving should be separated from Christmas by at least two months and Easter should be separated from Christmas by at least six months. We might be able to move Thanksgiving some day but I just know the Church will never recoginze the benefit and the logic of making at least a six month gap between Christmas and Easter. I mean Christ just came into the world and now in three months he is rising from the dead!! There should be some proportionality ( a nice philosophical term) between the celebration of these events and the actual events as they occurred in time. And that would give us a chance to breath.

 

[Justicia_et_Pax]

I love Lent! It is a great time for spiritual reflection and re-generation.

**"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.

And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him…" (Luke 4:1-2, 13)**

Jesus was tested and prevailed, which helped prepare him for his public ministry.

Jesus also sets an example for us, during our testing and ‘time in the wilderness.’

I love to read these verses and reflect on them and then look to my own ‘forty days’ of fasting and temptation ‘in the wilderness’ during Lent!

For me, my PTSD flares up very badly (and often very dangerously) during Lent. That is why I fear it - because my mental health spirals out of control One might say that that is my own ‘time in the wilderness’ but it is one I struggle to look (forward) to

 

[Jennifoo]

Lent…I understand it’s an opportunity to grow in faith and practice sacrifice, which is so good for my spirituality. But…I dread it every year!! I want to look forward to it. Anyone else feel this way about Lent? Can anyone offer me some encouraging words to get me “pumped” for it?

I can relate. I used to be intimidated by fasting. The way I got over that was by praying to Saint Jude and Saint Therese of Lisieux, both in formal prayer and in my own words. I told them just how I felt and they helped me by their prayers to get over that fear. Remember that the saints had to observe Lent too when they were on earth and may have felt the same way. Now I really love Lent and fasting, when done correctly, can be refreshing. Pax Christi!

 

[Apologista]

The fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday have generally been the toughest things for me. Since I have insulin resistance, I do have a dispensation from a priest if I need to resort to it. And I never knew until recent years that fruit juice or tea or coffee between meals was allowed; I thought it had to be just water like before Communion. But I have been challenging myself to do it the best I can, and it’s less fearful now.

Other parts of Lent I find helpful growing closer to God. Devotions and Bible reading and that sort of thing.

I usually try to pick one particular fault to work on, too, or a “theme.” (Like “Let Go and Let God,” or “Do Good Anyway” etc.) God usually sends me a theme a little bit before Lent! Which reminds me I had a really great theme come to me the other day and now I’ve forgotten it but if it’s “the one,” I’ll probably recall it. Or maybe God will send me a different one! Maybe it was “Let Go and Let God” . . .

 

[normbetland]

I heard or read a well known spiritual advisors say that if you wish to live a life of faithfulness that leads to eternal salvation - read one version of the Passion every day as part of your prayer life.

I once dreaded Lent…now I look forward to it! I pray the same for you. You have already taken the hardest first step - honesty.

Wow that is such a wonderful idea that I never even considered. I think I’m going to try that.

 

[Domiy]

I must be someone special, or you must be someone odd, OP, because I love Lent!

Along with Christmas time, it’s the best time of the year to enjoy family life and charity etc. Spiritual-wise though, Lent is untouchable! I feel such grace and healing during the Stations of the Cross and separating myself from the worldly things for Christ’s sake is something very rewarding. I remember last year I was going through such severe depression, it lasted almost half a year, but the only time I felt better was during Lent.

I suggest you really take a moment to meditate on what Lent actually is. It’s our dedication to Christ and an experience of his suffering and death for us.

The one thing I don’t like about how people treat it though is the old tradition of “giving something up” or “fasting from something” during Lent. I don’t really believe we should give up one single thing and still indulge in the countless others. During Lent, I try to completely eliminate or limit everything I usually love. That includes TV, video-games, meat, music, going to parties etc. IMO, Lent is the time you can really tell how spiritual someone really is, not that it’s for us to know or judge, but it’s an interesting indication. The amount of people I know who say they’ll give up a certain type of junk food for Lent and then go out to nightclubs and parties drinking every night is worrying…