A Septuagesima Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right

In the traditional Church calendar, today is Septuagesima Sunday. It's the first of three Sundays (the other two being Sexigesima and Quinquegesima) where we find the priest wearing purple even though it's not officially Lent. These Sundays were "designed" to remind us that Lent was coming. They give us time to prepare ourselves for this most Holy Season. In the newer (Novus Ordo) calendar, these Sundays are just part of "Ordinary" time. And if your experience with the Novus Ordo is like mine, there's hardly a peep about Lent until - maybe - the "Ordinary" Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Isn't taking the time for preparation before Lent make more sense if we're to take this Holy Season seriously? In any case, I thought we could take advantage of what was once common practice and start getting ready as our ancestors did for centuries. It will help us enter Lent in the right spirit. So starting this Sunday, we'll present some thoughts to help us prepare.

Let's start with a reminder about why Sunday should be the ideal time to prepare for Lent. If we keep Sunday as we should, we should find slices, even chunks of time, to do what we typically don't do during the week. These might include spending more time with family; maybe visiting with or calling loved ones who don't live with us or aren't close to us. They also can, and should include spending more time with God, first at Holy Mass, then perhaps spending extra time in prayer. And it's here that we can prepare ourselves for the coming of Lent.

Let's face it, for many of us, the weekdays, as well as Saturday, can be filled with various duties of our state of life that frequently fill in every spare moment. While we may be disciplined enough to carve out time for God, will we have a few spare moments to clear our minds and prepare ourselves properly to organize how we're going to observe our Lenten discipline? Will we think about how we can increase our almsgiving (which includes all acts of charity, not just giving money)? Will we consider ways to expand and intensify our prayer life, perhaps including extra time to meditate on the Passion of Our Lord? Will we plan how we will make special sacrifices, centered on the traditional practice of fasting: what treats we might give up, prudently curtailing eating between meals, or even cutting out a full meal or two from time to time? Of course, we can just quickly dash off an idea or two in our minds on Ash Wednesday, but that's not likely to produce good results. You wouldn't take such an off-handed approach planning a vacation, would you? So why take this approach when considering how you will observe the Holy Season of Lent?

So now for our preparation: You might start by considering each of the three special areas that should be the basis of our Lenten discipline. For each, create a simple plan that will assure that you put some time and effort into each during the 40 days of Lent:

• A plan for Almsgiving

• A plan for Prayer

• A plan for Fasting

And write it down somewhere. This year I'll use the "Notes" app on my iPhone. I've taken to this little gizmo recently and use it to sketch out the weekly breakdown of my overall personal and business planning. Maybe you prefer writing things down somewhere. It doesn't matter. Go with your preference as long as you keep these items accessible. That means you can easily check in and glance at them at least once a week, preferably more often. I find it's the only way to make things "real." And when it comes to Lenten discipline, we should take it seriously, of course, do anything that helps us stick to it more faithfully is well worth it.

Next Sunday we'll spend some time thinking about how our Lenten discipline helps keep us spiritually "fit" to face a world that's not always so accommodating to the practice of our Catholic Faith.

Happy Septuagesima Sunday!