Lent Week 1: Advice for Setting the Tone for the Catholic’s Journey

Lent week one is the beginning of a long journey to Easter. The most important thing to remember, in order not to get overwhelmed, is to take Lent one day at a time, and not to view it as a week-long slog. Taking this perspective is important in order not to drive yourself nuts.

One of the ideas that is most pertinent is to improve every week during Lent. One can add things like prayer, going to Eucharistic Adoration or Confession, or amping up your almsgiving. In this article, we will expand upon these ideas in order to help the reader. Do you think it is a good idea to improve gradually during Lent?

Lent Week One Ideas

The idea is to improve each week during this season. How might one do this? Here are some practical ideas.

Ways to Increase Prayer

Lent is about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. There are many ways to improve one’s prayer life. One idea is to take advantage of the many opportunities that are available to local Catholic churches. Attending things like Eucharistic Adoration, Confession, Stations of the Cross, or even weekly fish fries are good ideas. The fish fries are on Fridays. In summary, there are many opportunities available to you.

One can also improve one’s prayer life by adding various daily activities. One idea is to read the bible, maybe one chapter per day. There are applications and podcasts to help you. Another idea is to pray the rosary. Begin by praying one decade a day. Pray it with your family, as you may know, the family that prays together, stays together.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that, because it has been shown scientifically in academic studies, prayer and meditation are beneficial to your health. The main idea is that the calming influence of the things helps slow our pulse and relieve our stress. It is also believed that if you pray for someone else, it will help them.

Fasting Ideas

It is well-known that Catholics must fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday during Lent. They must also abstain from meat on Fridays. These rules apply to Catholics between the ages of 14 and 59. The rules for a fast are to eat one normal meal and to eat two meals not equaling one meal.

People who are not fasting can adopt these practices. Whether one is or is not, one can always add things. For instance, you can abstain from meat one extra weekly day, or all days. One can also fast for an additional day. In particular, some Catholics fast between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Fasting has also been shown to have health benefits.

Almsgiving Ideas

Giving away money is nice because it is something that can be done at any time. Someone can give Alms more frequently or in greater amounts. Your church will always accept more, or more frequently. One idea is to give until it hurts. Jesus said that the one penny a poor woman gave was greater than a rich person giving out of their excess. So, there is a relationship between what you give and how much they have.

One last idea is to send, or give money, to people for no reason. Just mail it to them. This is something to do if you do not want to give to your church. It is even a good idea to increase your savings rate or your contributions to things like college savings accounts. This latter idea can help you as well, as historically the stock market has increased by seven percent a year.

Parting Shots

At the beginning of your Lenten Journey, it is important to take Lent day by day instead of viewing it as a 40+ day slog. It is also a good idea to increase your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as you go along. The idea is to get better as you go. If you have this increasing mindset, you will do well.

Disclaimer: This article contains a summary of the practices of Lent as well as interpretive insights from the author. Interpretations of church teachings can differ, and this piece represents one approach.