The J-O-Y of Lent-fullness...

Fast, pray, give away. 

Lent. Be lent-ful. Focus on God. Be good. Don't gossip. Don't get angry. Curb the road rage. Curb all rage. Mustn't be mean to (very) silly siblings. Must retract two words from previous sentence. Fine, conscience, they're retracted - I wasn't at all being Lent-ful. Eat less flesh, more musical fruit (makes you do something that rhymes with "Bart..."), speaking of eating - must do more dishes, complain less about doing aforementioned dishes... Why don't we use plastic plates again? Oh yes, wasteful. Can't be wasteful... not in Lent. 

Fast, pray, give away. 

... Until Easter. Oh man, Easter is awesome. Jesus rises ANDDDDD to celebrate, all those Lenten promises I made and did my best to stick to can go jump. I can eat meat, don't have to fast, can stop doing all those *excess* prayers, and can stop giving money to every homeless guy I run in to (read: almost trip over) on the way to work.

Excellent. 

Fast, pray, give away. 

... Be transformed.

I was always taught to give up a favourite treat during lent. Soft drink? Chocolate? McDonalds? I would consider it miraculous just HOW GOOD Coke tasted on Easter Sunday, when I was finally 'liberated' from the yoke of self-mortification and free to drink as I pleased. 

If only I was taught earlier just how transforming the practices of Lent are. Then maybe I would have witnessed a true miracle - the cleansing of a soul that has reconnected with itself, God, and others. Fast, pray, give away. 

FAST, that you may master your will and be able to practice self denial. Grace comes next - spiritual baby steps soon become leaps of the soul. 

PRAY, that your soul may understand the language of the Lord. In this way, you may become one. (Ahem, Eucharist junkie reporting for duty... mass is the highest form of prayer, Holy Communion the surest way to become one with God - His blood beats through your veins!)

GIVE AWAY, that you may be reconciled to the community. Let your interior transformation manifest itself in good deeds. Make the world that little bit shinier. 

The Maronite Church focuses on the miracles of Christ during this season. Odd, right? Why not focus on His preaching? The prophecies about His death and resurrection? 

I kinda came upon this answer over the course of a few days. Not only do these miracles make us journey with Christ to the end of his public ministry, but their message is very lent-ful (Kylie, stop trying to make 'lent-ful' happen, it's not going to happen)...

Let's take a quick look at just one gospel extract. Jesus healing the blind man. Why talk about him in Lent? Because he is a model of faith for us. Turns out the Church kinda knows what She's doing (I'm not shocked either)...

The blind man, in his eyes at those of society, had a spiritual ailment (curse) that manifested itself into a severe physical ailment (blindness). Through declaring Him Lord and petitioning the King of Kings ("Son of David, have mercy on me!"), and recognising Him as Lord, he was made clean. 

This is why we FAST, because we need to rid ourselves of interior dispositions which often manifest themselves into sin and make ourselves clean by PRAYER - throwing ourselves into the arms of the Saviour. 

The key to the story is this: Bartimaeus didn't just go back to his normal life after he was healed. Quite the contrary. He recognised what the Lord had done for him and allowed this to have an impact on his life! He followed Jesus to the Cross. 

We are on the same path as Bartimaeus. When we are healed, we are then able to follow Him to the Cross. Should we heed this lesson, our reward will one day be to rise and reign with Him and the Church Triumphant in the kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of time. 

Don't just do Lent, be lent-ful. Be transformed. 

J-O-Y

Jesus-Others-Yourself

Pray-Give Away-Fast

P.S. When getting down or feeling unmotivated, think about this. Allow me to quote a wonderful priest who spoke about Lent last week. 

"What is the difference between fasting and feasting? One letter: "E" for "Emmanuel." When we have Emmanuel in our lives we are not fasting, we are fEasting."