1st Sunday of Lent - Bring It On!

The 1st Sunday of Lent arrives: Bring it on!

We begin a special Holy Season now. It's our time to show up. We've got a plan of attack. Now the battle begins.

The "Big Three" - Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving - now move into position. Each has been prepped, each now ready to help us execute our Lenten game plan. 

(Don't have your plan worked out yet? Get on it. The trumpet has already called for the attack. Don't be dead weight in the coming battle - please!)

The plan isn't too complicated. Complicated battle plans don't work well. And so our own plan - specific to each of us, according to our individual temperament and capability - has been drawn up such that there's no confusion, no difficulty in executing each day.

We're now 4 days in  - Ash Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday - and have hit our first respite from the fighting. Sunday's in Lent are that respite.

(Of course, Sundays always provide some respite for the weary worker, the weary pilgrim, the weary soldier who puts on his armor every day to engage the world, the flesh, and the devil in the struggle for salvation. The daily struggle goes on all year - the struggle for the sanctification of our soul - but it takes on a new, broader, more immediate character during this Holy Season.)

In the course of our Lenten struggle, the fog of war may - more likely will - descend upon us, perhaps each and every day. Our daily life goes on around us, even as we engage in spiritual battle. The ordinary, practical duties we must attend to do not ease up. And they can easily "fog over" our Lenten discipline.

We enter the fray armed and ready, with the best intentions. Then our daily work, our domestic duties, flowing as they always do, can sort of get in the way. They can crowd out our time and attention such that our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are left unattended.

If that happens, so be it. Perhaps it is due to our own weakness, or the difficulties we have - all of us - in dealing with distractions from what is really important - i.e., our spiritual life. God sees all this and at the very least permits it. It's not its occurrence that should disturb us. What matters is how we react.

If we recognize any shortcoming, and failure, and slips and falls, we simply pick ourselves up and start again. Just as our spiritual plan for Lent is simple, so is this starting again.

And we always have our Acts of Perfect Contrition, as well as Sacramental Confession, to bolster us in the fray.

Battle is never easy.

And the Enemy never relents.

But our General, our God never allows our Enemy to prevail. His Grace will flow sufficiently. If we but cooperate with it, we'll be OK.

Besides, we soldiers in Christ's army come to the battle armed and dangerous. With our Baptism Boot Camp, supplemented by the mighty Sacrament of Confirmation, our training has been second to none. The graces we received in these to Sacraments remain with us, a store of spiritual strength. Use them as needed. With the ongoing flowing of God's grace, can there be any doubt of ultimate victory?

So with this 1st Sunday of Lent, with the battle begun, bring it on! We are not afraid. We follow Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this Lenten struggle. He has shown and will show us the way with His Passion, Death, and Resurrection. We will accompany our Sacred Leader and fight with our last ounce of strength.

We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee

Because By Thy Holy Cross Thou Hast Redeemed the World