How to Fail Successfully at Lent

(Photo by Ryan LeBlanc)

“…keep going in whatever goodness you strive for this Lent.”

By Ryan LeBlanc

We are still in the cold weather. We are still in the wilderness. We are still in Lent, turning back to God through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

I want to offer you this encouraging moment to check-in and update yourself: How is your Lent going? Have you kept up to your commitments that you made on Ash Wednesday? Have you still struggled even to make a commitment?

We know that we grow when we strive to reach a goal. In Lent, we strive to reach goodness, peace, joy, generosity, justice – and ‘striving’ means we work at it.

As you reflect on your Lent so far, I want you to be encouraged and inspired, especially if it has been difficult for you. So, with the intention to encourage and inspire you, I would like to share personally with you how my Lenten fast is going:

Terrible!

I have broken my personal Lenten fast almost every single day of Lent so far. I thought that I had chosen a simple, attainable goal of self-discipline. Apparently, I have much less discipline than I thought I did.

It is true: I have failed to give up completely what I intend to give up almost every single day. The days when I truly did not break the fast are rare enough to count as divine intervention. And they let this bozo write about faith?

But I am not going to give up striving.

First off, this experience is teaching me humility. I depend on God for all my strength, because I am really weak.

Also, the striving is making me stronger. I know that I am growing as much as I possibly can, because I clearly cannot do any better at this point. And so, by continuing to strive, even though I fail, I increase my capacity to welcome goodness through self-discipline.

Lastly, even though I fail every day to sacrifice 100% of my attachment, I am reducing my dependence to a worldly pleasure. Opening up to higher, heavenly experiences of connection and relationship when I do keep the fast brings an abundance of goodness into my life.

I want my “Mission Failed Successfully” to encourage you to keep going in whatever goodness you strive for this Lent. Even if you and I are different people striving for different things, we can strengthen and encourage each other.

Let us keep going on this Lenten journey together – let us keep up the good fight because nothing worth having comes easy.

Lord Jesus,
you walked the desert,
which prepared you for the Cross.
Walk with us now
as we strive towards your goodness.
Amen.

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Ryan LeBlanc is a Teacher Chaplain at E.D. Feehan Catholic High School in Saskatoon and a parishioner at the Cathedral of the Holy Family.