What to do for lent?

  • Thread starter Thread starter angell1
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

angell1

Guest
any ideas?

last year I gave up sweets, and I’ve done other things like give up tv or Netflix in the past

want to do something different though

what are you guys doing? or have done in the past?

my main things might be to give up a certain food greoup, meat, dairy, or just add prayers, like a daily rosary, or weekly adoration.

or maybe i should do both?

any other suggestions are welcome
 
🍿

I need some ideas too. Just to be clear you can add something and not give something up, right? Or do you always have to give something up?
 
KendraDZ1902 said:
🍿

I need some ideas too. Just to be clear you can add something and not give something up, right? Or do you always have to give something up?
Click to expand...
i don’t think it necessarily has to be giving something up. but i could be wrong
 
“Giving something up” for Lent is in the realm of personal piety. It is not something the Church legislates (beyond the days of fasting and abstinence, of course). So there is a lot of leeway.

Nonetheless, prayer, fasting and almsgiving is the traditional Catholic way of doing things. So doing something from each category is always encouraged. 👍

I’ll probably be giving up CAF for Lent. :o
 
Every Lent I read some solid spiritual reading, but I also give up sound. By that I mean TV during the day, radio, DVDs, CDs, etc. It works for me because I’m alone during the day. The idea being to think of what distracts from other more important things–something that requires self-discipline.
 
angell1 said:
any ideas?

last year I gave up sweets, and I’ve done other things like give up tv or Netflix in the past

want to do something different though

what are you guys doing? or have done in the past?

my main things might be to give up a certain food greoup, meat, dairy, or just add prayers, like a daily rosary, or weekly adoration.

or maybe i should do both?

any other suggestions are welcome
Click to expand...
My spiritual director usually advises me to pick one small thing for each “category” of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. One year I gave up texting and had to call my friends every time I wanted to do something or respond to a message they sent me, and I ended up really enjoying the deeper connection. I’ve also had friends give up makeup for Lent or have 2 sets of each clothing type (2 pants, 2 shirts, 2 dresses/skirts, 2 pairs of shoes, etc.) and wear those for the entirety of Lent.

If you wanted to give up a food group, you might figure out how much you would normally spend on that food and donate that amount of money to your church or a charity.

Basically, I usually try and think of something that would allow me to love God and others more deeply and do more of that, or give up whatever’s blocking me from loving God and others.
 
I have a jar on my desk at work. Inside the jar are 40 strips of paper, and each one has a suggestion like:

Spend ten minutes reading the bible
Give up television today
Clean up someone else’s mess
Visit an elderly person

Every day during lent I pick one out and do it.

It doesn’t really matter what you do, so long as you do it prayerfully. Fasting without prayer is just a diet!
 
Every year I have this conversation with my spiritual director, and every year the question is the same: what will help me grow closer to the Lord during Lent? “Giving something up” is a popular way of thinking about Lent, but the point is not to make yourself miserable, the point is to draw closer to the Lord.

As Joe said, the traditional practices are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

In the category of prayer I would include things like spiritual reading or going on a retreat.

If you’re looking for things to fast from (and feast on) consider this list: oblatesosbbelmont.org/2009/02/27/lent-fast-from-feast-on/

If you’re looking for practices to adopt, take a look at this list from the Rule of St. Benedict: christdesert.org/Detailed/71.html Perhaps you could choose one for each week of Lent and find ways to put it into practice in your life.
 
Sounds cool, although I do not have Twitter.

OP, “giving things up” is NOT a matter of Church teaching.

ICXC NIKA.
 
I can so do this! Ahhh yay!! OK, this and daily rosary that’s what I’m doing for lent. Ahhh yay!!
 
I usually try to get rid of a few pointless time-wasters in my life (I’ve done TV and Facebook in the past.) The idea is that I ALSO add on a spiritual practice that fills the time I would have spent doing nothing. But somehow I always end up doing something else pointless and time-wasting. :confused:

I used to think I’d made a lot of spiritual “progress.” Now I think…not so much, heh.

This year I’ve been thinking about doing more prayer as a family - i.e. something besides grace before meals and bedtime prayers with the kids. But that requires some level of cooperation with three other people…so we’ll see.
 
I prefer to refrain from something that is harmful, thereby eliminating a bad habit, and doing something pleasing to God.

So I’m going try my hardest to be less critical of people. When faced with awkward folks, I will smile, try to place myself in their shoes, and say a prayer for them.
Instead of my usual #^#%#^@*##^%# LOL
 
Joe_5859 said:
I’ll probably be giving up CAF for Lent. :o
Click to expand...
Last year I gave up CAF for Lent, and it was good. I might do it again this year.
CruceSignati said:
I will be giving up almost all internet for Lent. This should be interesting…😃
Click to expand...
I don’t know if I could do that in my present circumstances, but some other year maybe! That would be the modern equivalent of going to the desert and living on locusts and wild honey.
 
If only we could get posters to abandon (give up) certain topics! 😃

:manvspc:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
 
Fulfilling all the duties of your state in life as perfectly as possible. As my
SD says, “sanctity is found in the mundane. It’s easy to do something big in Lent like fasting, but far more difficult, and thus more spiritually beneficial, to faithfully do the mundane things in life out of love for God.”
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
Fulfilling all the duties of your state in life as perfectly as possible. As my
SD says, “sanctity is found in the mundane. It’s easy to do something big in Lent like fasting, but far more difficult, and thus more spiritually beneficial, to faithfully do the mundane things in life out of love for God.”
Click to expand...
See, this wouldn’t be good for me. I am a perfectionist. I set overly high goals for myself and I am already extremely critical of myself. For instance, when I was in the fourth grade I grounded myself for making a B on a report card. That was my first B, ever. It isn’t good for me to make an effort to try to be more perfect, because I’m already way too critical of myself, to the point that it harms my mental health.
I also can’t sit in silence like others have suggested because in silence I get incredibly, horrible intrusive thoughts and it makes me contemplate suicide.
These things are definitely a no-go for Lent or any other time of the year.
Seriously, kudos to y’all. I sincerely cannot do those things.
 
well, I’m not relaly on caf often enough to make it worthwhile to give up

is a daily rosary enough. I’m not too good at praying that, get distracted too easily. and I keep saying i’ll do it more but I just havn’et yet

I always feel like no matter what I do for lent, it’s not really enough. but I know that’s not really the point. maybe I will still fast from something as well. not sure what yet though
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top