Tag: ash wednesday

  • What Do Lent and Valentine’s Day Have in Common? More Than You Think

    What Do Lent and Valentine’s Day Have in Common? More Than You Think

    Grey heart made of ash and dustAsh Wednesday and Valentine’s Day can seem like contradictions. One day celebrates romantic love, while the other reminds us that our bodies will one day turn into dust. This year, February 14 will be filled with both Cupid and ashes.

    Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season of repentance and the preparation for the holiest days of the Church year. I always find that the beginning of Lent comes up so fast that I do not spend enough time reflecting on how I should spend this season. My tendency towards the eleventh hour isn’t new – if I am honest, I also tend to buy my Valentine’s Day gift for my wife at the last minute as well. So this year, I want to make the start of Lent and Valentine’s Day more impactful by considering what they mean — together.

    RELATED: Why Ash Wednesday Isn’t a Downer

    This year’s simultaneous occurrence of these two important days on the calendar has been a fruitful coincidence for me because it prompted me to start thinking about the day sooner than I usually do. So often, I live in a state of distraction – going from one day to the next without being intentional about the coming days. Once I investigated the significance of Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday, I found that their alignment offers a powerful opportunity to see that love means that we die to ourselves. 

    St. Valentine was a priest (possibly a bishop) who lived during the third century. He was a man of tremendous faith. During his time, Emperor Claudius struggled to employ soldiers in his army. He thought this was because men would rather marry than serve him. So, Claudius outlawed marriages in order to spike the numbers in his army.

    In response, Valentine often married couples in secret so they could enter into the sacred bond of lifelong love together. When he was later imprisoned for doing so, he healed the jailer’s daughter of blindness, befriended her, and would often sign his letters to her, “your Valentine.” Valentine was eventually beheaded for his defiance of the emperor and died as a martyr of the faith. 

    LISTEN: Saints of Our Lives: St. Valentine

    Learning about the life of St. Valentine has compelled me to reflect on what I do for Valentine’s Day and how I approach the everyday aspects of my marriage. Specifically, how can I sacrifice more for my wife? Instead of viewing ordinary tasks as a simple responsibility, I have begun to see that doing the dishes or laundry after a long day of work can be an offering of love to her because she so often does them for me. Simply carving out time to write a letter to her on an ordinary day is another practice that I know will make our relationship more rooted in the sacrifice of St. Valentine. 

    Love costs us something: our time, our energy, our sacrifice and effort. Lent is meant to cost us small offerings so that we can gain further insight into Jesus’ sacrifice. That is why we receive ashes on the first day of Lent. I would argue that Valentine lived from the consciousness of his own ashes. He knew that to follow Jesus meant that his entire being would be an offering to God.

    This Lent, I know I am being invited to do something similar. So, rather than giving up ice cream and sweets, I want to be committed to sacrificing in ways that explicitly proclaim the love that motivates the sacrifice. This Valentine’s Day will be made up of no extravagant gifts; my wife and I have decided to make Lent an extended Valentine’s Day of sacrifices for each other. 

    RELATED: In Defense of the Lenten Sacrifice

    Just like making time to sacrifice for my wife, this Lent I want to make the sacrifice of waking up 15 minutes earlier each day to pray. I want to commit to being more present at Sunday Mass, especially during the reception of Holy Communion. I hope that these practices will be more concerned with loving Christ and less concerned with giving things up because that is “what you do during Lent.” 

    This Valentine’s Day, and Ash Wednesday, practice sacrificial love that continues throughout Lent. See that love is most pure when it acts out of intentional choices for the other. Then we will experience that St. Valentine and ashes truly belong together. 

  • 25 Great Things You Can Do for Lent

    25 Great Things You Can Do for Lent

    25-great-things-to-do-for-lentAsh Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the 40 days of preparation for the Easter season when Christians are called to deepen their spiritual lives through the practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. The belief is that our consistent participation in these practices — like exercise we do for our physical health — improves our spiritual well-being by stripping away all that is unnecessary and becoming more mindful of how God is working in our lives. Challenge yourself this year, and go beyond the usual practice of “giving up” something. Now is a great time to take stock of your spiritual life and to grow in it. Not sure where to start? Check out these 25 ideas:

    1. Make a commitment to read the Sunday scriptures before Sunday Mass. In the same way that reading up on football players, opposing teams, and coaching strategies will help you experience a game more fully, familiarizing yourself with the readings ahead of time will help you experience them in a deeper way on Sunday.

    2. Use Busted Halo’s Lent Calendar, filled with Lenten-themed Daily Jolts and MicroChallenges to find new ways to practice the disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Each day of Lent, we’ll offer an inspirational quote paired with a practical, challenging task that you can do that day to help keep your spiritual life on point. You can also find these challenges on our website, or when you follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

    3. Try a new spiritual practice. Sign up for an hour of Eucharistic Adoration. Experience Mass at a parish that’s made up of people from a different racial/ethnic group. Sign up for a silent retreat or spend at least one hour in silent meditation each weekend.

    4. Think about what you usually spend your money on. Do you buy too many clothes? Spend too much on dinner out? Pick one type of expenditure that you’ll “fast” from during Lent, and then give the money you would usually spend to a local charity.

    5. Take something on — 40 days of letter writing, 40 acts of kindness, 40 phone calls to the important people in your life.

    6. When you first sit down in front of your computer at work, or at the very end of your workday, try a 10-minute guided prayer from Sacred Space based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius.

    7. Go to (or watch) a weekday Mass one day during the week. Many parishes offer them early in the morning, at noon, or after work. Daily Masses are often more intimate and shorter than Sunday Mass.

    8. If you don’t have a cross in your apartment or house, buy a simple one and put it in your bedroom.

    9. Use Busted Halo’s InstaLent Photo Challenge for daily, creative doses of Lenten spirituality. Post a photo each day and encounter the themes of Lent on a visual, personal level.

    10. Instead of turning on a streaming service for your next binge-watching session, read the entire Gospel of Mark in one sitting. As the shortest Gospel, it is the most concise story of Jesus’ life, and the cross, a central Lenten symbol, plays an even more prominent role than in the other Gospels.

    11. Meditate with the Stations of the Cross. Many parishes offer these during Lent and often on Fridays. Or check out Busted Halo’s Virtual Stations of the Cross.

    12. Create your own Friday fish fry! Try this simple and delicious recipe. It’s not the healthiest thing in the world, but a fun Catholic tradition to help you abstain from eating meat on Fridays during Lent.

    13. Unplug from your iPhone or turn off your car radio on your commute. The silence may be jarring at first, but you may find that you are able to concentrate better and will be more observant of your surroundings.

    14. Buy a book of daily reflections and keep it by your bed. Local parishes often offer these for purchase during Lent, and there are some good ones available online. Try the Magnificat or a book by Edward Hays.

    15. Think about a habit that has kept you from being whom God is calling you to be. Consciously give up that habit for Lent.

    16. Spend at least one weekend or evening volunteering during Lent. If you feel comfortable volunteering in person, help package meals at your local soup kitchen or stock shelves at a food pantry. If you’d rather volunteer from home, reach out to your parish to see how your skills might help serve on of the church committees. 

    17. Make a commitment to fast from insensitive, cruel comments about others. So, no gossiping or going down the Twitter rabbit hole.

    18. Participate in a spiritual book club or small community of faith. Check out what’s already going on at your parish or pick a book and start your own.

    19. As a part of your Lenten almsgiving, make a point to learn more about a particular social issue (immigration, human trafficking, racism, the environment, public education, child poverty). Give money to an organization related to your chosen issue that supports the dignity of the human person.

    20. Tap into your creative side and try using coloring as a way to pray and meditate during Lent. Buy a coloring book or download a Lent calendar coloring page here.

    21. Use the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl to reflect on the realities of people in need around the world and devote prayers, fasting, and almsgiving to changing the lives of the poor. The money raised by CRS Rice Bowl supports not only the prevention of hunger and poverty in countries like Kenya, Vietnam, and Honduras, but also  in the United States. (Twenty-five percent of all donations stay in the local diocese where they are collected.) For your Lenten Fridays, CRS Rice Bowl also features meatless recipes from cultures around the world. 

    22. Pray for somebody. As you’re walking the streets, driving the highways, or waiting for a meeting to start, pick out a person who appears to be in need and pray for that person. Be mindful of the words of philosopher Philo of Alexandria, who said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”

    23. Get to know your neighbors. Introduce yourself, plan a dinner, or bring food to an older person on your block.

    24. Read the Works of Mercy as Jesus describes them in Matthew 25:31-46. Then put this teaching into practice and choose an act of service you can perform throughout Lent.

    25. Celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Can’t remember how? Here’s a simple guide with some tips. Tell the priest it’s been a while, and ask him to guide you through it.

  • WATCH: Lent in Three Minutes

    WATCH: Lent in Three Minutes

    What is Lent all about? Why do Christians receive ashes on Ash Wednesday? Why 40 days? If you’re looking for answers, you’ve come to the right place. In an updated version of our classic video (with a bonus extra minute — because there’s a lot happening here!), Busted Halo explains the significance of this season of prayer, fasting, and giving, and how you can make the most of this time of repentance and renewal.  

    Visit Bustedhalo.com/lent for more Lenten inspiration.

    To download this video go here and click the download arrow or choose save or download (top right). Please note, all Busted Halo videos are free to use in parishes, schools, or for other educational purposes. In fact, we encourage it! 

    (Originally published January 30, 2018)