A Quinquagesima Sunday Thought to Help Us Prepare for Lent

Ash Wednesday arrives this week. In the Church's traditional calendar, it's preceded by Quinquagesima Sunday - today. Time to prepare for Lent. Here are some suggestions we made last year to help you prepare:

First, let's look at "giving up." Giving something up for Lent remains a time-honored practice. But ask yourself whether your resolve to avoid sweets or alcohol or to avoid another favorite food or drink might not serve you rather than God. Could it be a way, for example to lose a few pounds, or in some way to live a more healthy life. Nothing wrong with living more healthy, but are your focusing here on yourself or on God? Is God really particularly offended by your eating candy or having a drink? Aren't pride, impatience, rash judgement, uncharitable speech, harshness towards others, or one of the host of other vices and negligences which we sinners harbor the things that really offend God? And wouldn't it make sense to expend our efforts attacking one or more of these rather than avoiding chocolate? Putting it another way, wouldn't God prefer a pure heart to an empty stomach?

I'm not suggesting that you not give something up for Lent. But I am suggesting that digging deeper to root out some fault or faults would serve your spiritual life better and please God more. It's just common sense, isn't it?

The ashes we receive this Wednesday remind us that we are dust. This world will pass. We will - all of us - soon die and face Our Lord and Savior, who will judge each of us. Will he care more about whether you gave up chocolate for a few weeks than the fact that you speak harshly to your wife and children, or that you judge others without, as Our Lord says, seeing the beam in your own eye?
So there's work to be done here. Take the time to do it now. Examine your conscience, dig deep. Look for that fault or faults that you know, in your heart, keeps you from drawing closer to God. Think about ways to attack it in some special way during Lent, day by day, bit by bit. Whether or not or how much you succeed will be up to God. Putting in the effort, however, is up to you. Our Lord will help you sustain your effort if you ask Him. Ask your favorite saint for their intercession in your efforts. Pray for the grace you will need and then get to work on your Lenten resolutions.

Now here's something solemn to help get you in that Lenten mode (mood?). It's the Introit for Quinquagesima Sunday sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation, Le Barroux.

 
Here's a translation of the Latin:

Be Thou unto me a God, a Protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for Thou are my strength and my refuge: and for Thy Name's sake Thou wilt lead me, and nourish me. -- (Ps. 30. 2). In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in Thy justice, and save me. V.: Glory be to the Father . . . -- Be Thou unto me a God, a Protector . . .

Enjoy the long holiday weekend (President's Day) if you're off from work tomorrow. But do spend some time preparing for Lent. OK?