{"id":4490,"date":"2013-03-04T23:45:28","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T05:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/?p=4490"},"modified":"2013-03-06T20:53:36","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T02:53:36","slug":"explaining-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/04\/explaining-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining Lent to Someone Who\u2019s Not Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"lent-desert\"<\/a>
Lent…it’s like a desert here!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“You do WHAT every year?”<\/p>\n

“Why would God want you to torture yourself?”<\/p>\n

“Doesn’t God want you to have fun?”<\/p>\n

How do you explain Lent to someone who\u2019s not Catholic?<\/p>\n

From the outside, it seems like Catholics are anti-fun because it’s holy to give up things you love.<\/p>\n

I admit, It can be difficult to\u00a0understand the idea of sacrifice.<\/p>\n

But there is something similar to sacrificing for Lent that most people can understand…sacrificing for sports.
\n<\/p>\n

What is Lent?<\/h2>\n

Lent is a time of spiritual preparation.<\/p>\n

Jesus went into the desert for 40 days to fast, pray, and prepare for his mission, which ended in his passion, death, and resurrection. Every year, the Church imitates Jesus by symbolically going into the desert for 40 days as well.<\/p>\n

We fast, pray, and deny ourselves to spiritually prepare for celebrating the resurrection at Easter.<\/p>\n

Fasting and giving stuff up during Lent is called asceticism<\/em>. It comes from the Greek word \u00e1sk\u0113sis<\/i>, which means training or exercise.<\/p>\n

Originally in ancient Greece, it didn\u2019t have anything to do with religion. Ask\u0113sis<\/i>\u00a0was the training you did for athletic competition. When you’re trying to get in shape, you don\u2019t eat junk food, and you don\u2019t sit around on the couch. You go on a strict diet and do intense exercise.<\/p>\n

Lent is like spiritual training camp<\/h2>\n

Lent is like an intensive training camp for the spiritual life.<\/p>\n

Every summer, football teams go to training camp. They work out extra hard to get in shape, they perfect core skills, and they eat a special way to cut fat\u00a0and grow muscle.<\/p>\n

During Lent, Catholics take on spiritual exercises, like giving things up, fasting, prayer, and more frequent worship. These are like the exercise, diet, and core skills of a training camp.\u00a0We don’t deny ourselves because we hate the world or enjoy pain. Rather, we train ourselves to ready to receive more of God and his love.<\/p>\n

Does sacrificing the things you love would make God happy?<\/p>\n

Not the sacrifice…but what the sacrifice can bring–a pure heart capable of loving him completely. Lent is about emptying your heart of those things that distract you from loving God in order to\u00a0be filled up with more of him. We give up something good for\u00a0something infinitely better. It’s a fair trade.<\/p>\n

The key to Lent is self-mastery<\/h2>\n

To be completely happy and fulfilled, we need to follow God\u2019s plan for our lives. When we stray from that plan, things go wrong.\u00a0Sin is a turning away from God because we choose our ways over his ways.<\/p>\n

The temptation reject God, or even be indifferent to him can be strong.\u00a0Self-mastery is an important concept in the spiritual life. The passions, emotions, and bodily desires can sometimes rule over you and control you. If food, sex, comfort, anger, or the quest for wealth and possessions control your life, you\u2019re not truly free.<\/p>\n

But if you have the control to bend those things to your will, then you call the shots. You\u2019re truly free to direct your life where you want it to go and follow God totally.<\/p>\n

Giving up small things during Lent trains you to follow God\u2019s will. Then, when God calls you to give up larger things to follow him, you\u2019ll be ready.<\/p>\n

Lent takeaway<\/h2>\n

No, God doesn\u2019t like it when we\u2019re in pain. He likes it when we\u2019re holy and when we can love selflessly.<\/p>\n

But love doesn\u2019t come without sacrifice, and sacrifice doesn\u2019t come easily without training.<\/p>\n

Lent is about training yourself to let go of things you love a little so that you can love greater. It\u2019s not about rejecting life but fully living it!<\/p>\n

Lenten disciplines lead to more fulfilled human action. It\u2019s only in possessing yourself that can you give yourself away in love. And by giving yourself in love, you\u2019ll truly find yourself.<\/p>\n

P.S.<\/h2>\n

Do you have a story about a Lent where you felt really emptied of external distractions and more filled up\u00a0with God? How did it feel? Leave a comment and tell me about it.<\/p>\n

Do you have a non-Catholic friend that’s been wondering about Lent? Send them this post and let me know what they thought.<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Edgar Barany<\/a> via Compfight<\/a> cc<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“You do WHAT every year?” “Why would God want you to torture yourself?” “Doesn’t God want you to have fun?” How do you explain Lent to someone who\u2019s not Catholic? From the outside, it seems like Catholics are anti-fun because it’s holy to give up things you love. I admit, It can be difficult to\u00a0understand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"\nExplaining Lent to Someone Who\u2019s Not Catholic - Marc Cardaronella<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marccardaronella.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/04\/explaining-lent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Explaining Lent to Someone Who\u2019s Not Catholic - Marc Cardaronella\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“You do WHAT every year?” “Why would God want you to torture yourself?” “Doesn’t God want you to have fun?” How do you explain Lent to someone who\u2019s not Catholic? 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