Today is Ash Wednesday. It’s not actually a Holy Day of Obligation, but most people treat is like it is. The churches will be packed today. People who haven’t been to Mass since Christmas will go to church Ash Wednesday. Church regulars will grumble that the intermittent-Catholics are taking all the good pews in church, and make comments like “do they think that ashes are magic or something?” Heh.

It’s also the day that people dust off the New Year’s resolutions that they abandoned sometime around January 6th and re-try them for Lenten resolutions. In my opinion though, that’s not exactly doing it correctly. It seems to me that most people make New Year’s resolutions to improve themselves: get a new job, lose weight, shoot an 85 on the golf course, etc. Lenten resolutions are something different though: it’s to humble yourself for God. Lent’s resolutions should be designed to make you holier; they should be about doing something for no purpose other than to improve your relationship with God.

Since time immemorial, people have fasted to grow in holiness. (OVERSIMPLIFICATION ALERT) They would, for a period of time, deny themselves the gratification of eating– so that when the period was up, the celebration of eating a big meal would coincide with celebrating with the Lord. When people entered into a Lenten fast on Ash Wednesday– the Easter feast where Christians celebrate Christ’s triumph over death would be even more spectacular: now with ham!

In modern days, most people don’t uphold the true Lenten fast anymore. Indeed, even Holy Mother Church herself doesn’t prescribe the fast for Catholics. Under certain conditions (healthy between the ages of 18 and 60), Catholics are required to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday… and that’s pretty much it these days. Even the old rules about abstinence from meat have been relaxed to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (Good Friday is redundant, since Canons 1250 and 1251 in the Code of Canon Law require Catholics to abstain from meat EVERY Friday of the year), whereas in times past, Carne-Vale (Latin for Goodbye, Meat!) was in place for all of Lent as well as every Friday of the year.

These days, most people take on other forms of resolutions during Lent instead of fast and abstinence. They fast from eating ice cream or abstain from cussing. Snore. Hey, America: we should probably be cussing less and eating less ice cream anyway. Do people really eat much ice cream in February? Lent is supposed to be hard. It is to bring you into focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His promise of salvation. It is not a diet plan! That’s why some people decide that their Lenten resolutions aren’t so much to give something up as it is to take on something new: going to daily Mass, making a contribution to a charitable organization, praying a rosary, volunteering with an outreach program, etc. We are to do things for the Lord, not to cut back on the amount of text messages we send (unless of course, you are so reliant on texting that it would be genuine mortification to do so)

For the last few years, I decided to take on a large penitential sacrifice and to give up meat for all of Lent. Last year’s resolution was as follows:

(1) Giving up meat for all of lent.
(2) Adding 1 hour of adoration or Mass per week.
(3) No snacks from the vendor at work.
(4) Make some charitable donations to worthy causes.

I used the traditional understanding of Carne-Vale, which was that warm-blooded animals are the ones made of meat– which is how we get the great Catholic loophole that fish aren’t made of meat. It’s really not as hard as it sounds, though by Holy Week, the prospect of eating one more iota of tilapia is pretty unappealing.

This year, I am going to do something different instead. Instead of abstinence, I am going to do a 40-day fast, add 1 hour of Mass or adoration per week, and make some charitable donations. I will fast according to the standard rules of fasting: The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal in quantity. The fast is broken by eating between meals and by drinks which could be considered food (milk shakes, but not milk). Alcoholic beverages do not break the fast; however, they seem contrary to the spirit of doing penance.

Besides that, I’m looking forward to spending time in quiet prayer or adoration this lent. I’ve written before than I’m not a very good pray-er, and I hope to take this chance to improve on that with a little practice.

Have a blessed and fruitful lent, gentle reader. I’ll pray that you can grow in holiness, please do the same for me.