Living Lent - Day 3 HD

Описание: Follow along with our Living Lent Series: https://www.catholic.org/lent/livingl...

Support our mission: https://givebutter.com/CatholicOnline...

Today is Day 3 of Lent. It is the Friday after Ash Wednesday.

On Fridays during Lent, Christians abstain from eating flesh meat, which is a means of doing penance. If we want to supercharge our spiritual growth, we should consider doing more, such as fasting or abstaining in other areas.

The purpose of fasting and abstinence is not only about penance, it also builds self-mastery. But to be effective, we should choose to give up something that is difficult to sacrifice, not what is easy. For some people, this might be fasting from food. For others it might be spending less time on social media or abstaining from it altogether. I’m sure you can think of other examples.

Whatever we sacrifice, it should come at a cost to us. In this way, we build self-discipline and experience freedom from things that may control us. This frees us to better serve God. If money controls us, we must renounce our love of it. If food is the problem, then we should fast and/or abstain from it. If it is social media or television or the internet or anything else that competes with our love for Christ, we should sacrifice it.

When we experience an urge to focus more on wants and pleasures than on God, let us use those moments to turn to Christ in prayer. And let us remember the sacrifice he made for us all.

Join me in a short prayer.

Holy Father, I pray to share my blessings with others. When I see the hungry, I will share my bread. When I encounter the poor, I will share my money. When I find the unclothed, I will share my cloak. Amen.

And now, a reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 9 verses 14 through 15.

Then John's disciples came to him and said, 'Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?' Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Let us pray.

Lord God, keep me strong as I begin my Lenten sacrifices, abstaining from flesh meat and
offering fasts. Give me the strength to persist, and to think of you when I feel the urge to give up. Amen.

Today, on this Friday of Lent, I challenge you to carefully consider what you have given up for Lent. Is your sacrifice truly enough? Will it help you to hear the voice of the Lord in your heart?

May Christ bless you and your family this Lenten season.