Making Your Lenten Rule

 

The time to prepare for a good Lent is now — not on Shrove Tuesday just before going to bed.  Lent is a period of fasting and penitential discipline undertaken in preparation for Easter to the glory of God, the benefit of our souls and the well-being of the Church. Its observance is a solemn duty for all Churchmen, required by the Prayer Book.  The keeping of a good Lent is made up of three basic types of discipline: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. Prayer is at the center, as it indeed is for all the Christian life. The fruit of prayer is shown in the denial of our natural appetites in fasting and in the giving of alms for the work of God's Kingdom.  The three elements are really inseparable, for we are creatures made of matter as well as of spirit. Write yourself two copies of your rule before Ash Wednesday: One you will keep; the other should be brought with you to Church on Ash Wednesday to offer at the Altar, where it will be kept throughout the season. Listed below under each category are some typical Lenten observances.  Those Items in bold type are taken for granted as a part of every Churchman's Lenten observance. In the making of your own Lenten Rule, select things that you can do, but don't avoid challenging exercises: The grace of God is sufficient to enable us all to keep what we have faithfully and reasonably promised. PRAYER I will attend Church on Ash Wednesday and on the three Solemn Days of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday). I will add morning prayers upon arising to my daily schedule. I will attend the Friday night Lenten services each week. I will pray the Rosary every _______ as a private devotion. I will make a 15-minute meditation on some passage of Scripture every day. I will add an examination of conscience, confessing my sins of the past day to God, at my evening prayers. I will attend a weekday Mass every _______. I will prepare to make my first confession during Holy Week. I will study the lessons appointed for the Sundays in Lent every week. FASTING I will keep Ash Wednesday and Good Friday as strict fasts. I will abstain from meat on Wednesdays, in addition to Fridays. I will forego all places of public amusement during Lent - parties, movies, etc. I will forego coffee / tobacco / alcoholic beverages / sweets /red meat/all meat/between-meal snacks during Lent. I will forego all TV watching during Lent. ALMSGIVING I will increase my normal pledge by 10% for the duration of Lent. I will contribute an amount equal to what I usually spend on the things I have given up (coffee/tobacco / sweets / entertainment, etc.) to my Easter Offering. I will give two hours every _______________ to doing needed chores around the Church. I will visit three persons every ______________ who are lonely and/or whom I have long delayed visiting. I will write two letters every _________ to people I have long postponed writing.