What we should do this Lent

The Catholic Catechism teaches us that the season of Lent has a twofold character: primarily by recalling or preparing for baptism and by penance it disposes the faithful, who more diligently hear the word of God and devote themselves to prayer, to celebrate the paschal mystery. Although Mother Church has always observed in a special way abstinence from meat and fasting, it wants to indicate in the traditional triad of prayer, fasting, and charity, the fundamental means of complying with the divine precept of penance.

However what is the Lenten period to the average Catholic today? The act of penance is still observed, but usually implies abstinence from meat/sweets/alcohol/smoking etc. Most sacrifice these things for the forty-day period and then return to them with a renewed vigor on Easter itself and for the rest of the year. If sacrifice is done with this in mind, then it will not be a sacrifice pleasing to God. The psalmist says in Ps 51:16 ‘For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.’

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