Pounding Away At This Again On The Sunday Before Pentecost

We've been pounding away on what we've called our "Easter Discipline" on these Sundays in the Easter Season. The point of all this has been to keep the momentum going that we built up with our Lenten discipline of prayer, penance, and almsgiving. 

That "Big Three" shouldn't just disappear off our spiritual map when Easter rolls around. While our Easter discipline won't necessarily mimic our Lenten, the essence of praying, performing penitential acts and being charitable (almsgiving) ought to remain a core of our spiritual life. It's as simple as that.

Why have we been pounding away? Because we creatures of a loving God have a tendency to get soft or slack, especially if we had followed a more serious or even severe spiritual discipline during Lent. Easter represent a kind of relief. It's human nature to think this, and to react this way of course. 

We don't have to extend those extra-special Lenten spiritual practices. On the other hand, we do want to retain a solid semblance of that spiritual discipline we cultivated for the 40 days of Lent. What specifically do we mean by a "solid semblance"? Let's look at some specific examples.

Fasting:

Traditionally, all of Lent (except Sundays) was a time of fasting. The custom was to have one main meal each day, with the other two not "adding up" to the main meal. I've observed this. It's not that hard, but it definitely is fasting. (I've sometimes alternated this with skipping one of the smaller meals.). That's Lent.

When it's not Lent, we can still fast from time to time. Fasting helps us temper our urges, develops self-control, ultimately self-mastery. Some of our beloved saints subjected themselves to fasting, sometimes severe fasting. They understood themselves better than most of us understand ourselves. Some fasted to keep their sinful urges at bay; some simply to offer the suffering that accompanies a more severe fast to their dear suffering Savior. We don't have to subject ourselves to severe fasts to gain the benefit of fasting.

Mortification - a personal example:

During Lent, one of my mortifications was to "delay" eating for 3 minutes after saying grace. Doesn't sound like much until you try it. Not that it's horrendous; but it is challenging, especially if you're especially hungry. When Lent ended, that mortification remained, but reduced from 3 to 2 minutes, even during the Easter Season. 

The same could be said for prayers and almsgiving. What we did during Lent doesn't have to be jettisoned completely once Lent ends. Indeed, it's not unreasonable to hold ourselves to a fairly high standard when it comes to prayer, penance, and almsgiving throughout the year. After all, we're Catholics. We love Our Lord, the One Who suffered and died for us, Who subjects Himself to the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass every day throughout the year ever since He rose from the dead. It's really not asking for too much to extend ourselves a bit, even to subject ourselves - perhaps from time to time - to a spiritual discipline that challenges our natural tendency to seek comfort and pleasure all the time.

So that's why we've been pounding away. 

As we approach the end of the Easter Season, I hope we've all kept our spiritual discipline strong. If we did, we've bulked up our spiritual lives. It's no time to get soft and slack off. 

Happy Easter!