Lent Review: Lesson Learned

Introduction
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! A blessed Easter to you! We can rejoice in the bridge to Heaven being completed in Christ's dying and rising. In this article I will address some of the lessons I learned through my personal journey through Lent. Lent is a time to journey deep within ourselves and perform a solid review of our spiritual life. It is a season to grow in closeness to our Creator or to realize that He seems distant. Either way, it is a time of self reflection and awareness, with the hope of Easter ahead.

Lessons Learned
1. Discipline
In the days leading up to Lent I usually begin to set a Lenten discipline or disciplines. Since being back in the Church and meeting with my spiritual director, I have built my Lenten exercises around the big three: prayer, fasting, and alms giving. This three basic spiritual exercises are the foundation of a fruitful Lent as I have discussed before. This year I chose to pray a daily rosary (prayer); limit my smartphone use in my room (fasting); and give a specified amount from my paycheck to the Church, visit my Grandmother's husband in the nursing home, and pray for my aunt as she battles cancer (alms giving).

These three disciplines seems simple enough. In fact, as I reflect on them I have this impression that these really weren't Lent specific disciplines. This is why I may feel like my Lent was not very fruitful, but more on this later. The justification for these disciplines is to jump start my spiritual disciplines through out the year and beyond. I used to pray the rosary daily, but since have done it once to thrice per month. I used to be in a good place in terms of reading the books on my long reading list, but have turned to my smartphone and TV when bored in my room. I used to give somewhat regularly to the Church, but it was never a very defined amount or frequency.

The season started very slowly. My adherence to my Lenten exercises was very loose. Visiting my Grandmother's husband and praying for my aunt went well. The rest, however, was not very good at all. Perhaps this was due to a lack of vision or direction as an intended result of the exercises. I will certainly be discussing this with my spiritual director in our next meeting. Putting in place a discipline without a clear purpose is going to, rightly, seem pointless and will produce bad results. The point of our Lenten discipline should be Christ; He is the focus. A good discipline will guide us toward Christ and a desire to be close to Him.

2. Christ's Passion
Most people know what Christ's Passion is (the suffering, crucifixion, and death of Christ). However, there is so much to analyze and learn from Holy Week; how Holy Week came to be, what events occurred, and what they mean for us and our relationships with our God. For Lent I chose to do some spiritual reading and picked up the second volume of the "Jesus of Nazareth" series by Pope Benedict XVI. His brilliant exegesis of Sacred Scripture and infusion of Sacred Tradition revolving around Christ's Passion was an a amazing read.

This article would be lengthy if I discussed the entirety of the book in detail, so I will focus on the part of the book with the greatest impact. The part of the book that struck me the most, was how he discussed the dating of the Institution of the Eucharist, which is traditionally celebrated on Holy Thursday. However, as Pope Benedict points out, this would mean that Christ's execution would have taken place on the feast of the Passover. John's Gospel tells us that Jesus died on the day of preparation when the lamb's were slaughtered. This was powerful to me, because Christ is the lamb being slaughtered. And with this discovery, I have a new found appreciation for the Gospel according to St. John.

I love how the book was set up to go step by step in the order of events that happened during Holy Week. For someone that needs time to digest the theological density of Pope Benedict XVI, it was quite easy to follow. My edition came with a glossary as well, so any terms or ideas that I found foreign were made understandable with the help of the glossary. This book may not be for new comers to theological thought, but certainly should be on everyone's reading list.

3. Prayer and Self Reflection
While my discipline during Lent was weak, my prayer and self reflection was very strong. While I reflected on small everyday actions most days, I didn't do my deepest self examination unless I was before the Blessed Sacrament at my parish's Adoration Chapel. The logic behind this was simple. When journeying deep into your soul, depending on your life experiences, it can become very dark. When someone is in the midst of darkness, one is very vulnerable to confusion and attacks from evil sources.

While journeying "into the darkness" as I called it in my spiritual journal, I would reflect on where I was spiritually. I wanted to examine where my sins took me, what my relationship with the Lord was during the dark times. My examinations also allowed me to be at peace with what resulted from past sins. Ultimately my journey took me to a place of hope and thanksgiving. Knowing how dark things were in the past let me appreciate how bright things are now. I became truly grateful for how God has never abandoned me even when I deserved abandonment. God remained faithful! God did not stop seeking me out!

When I came to this conclusion during my last session of reflection, tears began streaming down my face. I was entering Holy Week with an renewed appreciation for what God has done. Jesus, knowing the fault of Man, marched to the Cross. He bore my sins (and yours) and was slaughtered like the lambs during the day of preparation. The bridge to Paradise was built, and we now have an ability to cross this bridge back to our Creator!

Conclusion 
After thinking that this year's Lent was a let down I have concluded that, even though it did not go according to plan, God still showed part of Himself. The journey into the darkness of the past brought me into the light of hope. This hope was celebrated during the Easter Vigil, when we go from darkness into light. I pray that you also were able to learn something about yourself and our awesome God during Lent. I pray that we will journey onward with the victory we share in Christ.

Credo Domine!