LENT

It's HERE.

And to start off the beautiful Lenten season I thought I would introduce you all to the recently beatified John Henry Cardinal Newman.  He was a 19th century English convert, apologist, philosopher, cardinal. His writings are incredibly insightful- he has a great gift for speaking to the modern world, encountering modern problems and responding to them with timeless love of Christ. I strongly encourage reading him - slowly, prayerfully- as part of your preparation for Easter. 

This is from a sermon he gave on the first Sunday of Lent in 1848, entitled "Surrender to God":

[F]asting is only one branch of a large and momentous duty, the subdual of ourselves to Christ. We must surrender to Him all we have, all we are. We must keep nothing back. We must present to Him as captive prisoners with whom He may do what He will, our soul and body, our reason, our judgement, our affections, our imagination, our tastes, our appetite. The great thing is to subdue ourselves; but as to the particular form in which the great precept of self-conquest and self-surrender is to be expressed, that depends on the person himself, and on the time or place. What is good for one age or person, is not good for another. . . . 

[O]ur Lord's temptation in the wilderness… began, you will observe, with an attempt on the part of the evil one to make Him break His fast improperly. It began, but it did not end there. It was but the first of three temptations, and the other two were more addressed to His mind, not His bodily wants. One was to throw Himself down from the pinnacle, the other the offer of all the kingdoms of the world. They were more subtle temptations. Now I have used the word "subtle" already, and it needs some explanation. By a subtle temptation or a subtle sin, I mean one which it is very difficult to find out. Everyone knows what it is to break the ten commandments, the first, the second, the third, and so on. When a thing is directly commanded, and the devil tempts us directly to break it, this is not a subtle temptation, but a broad and gross temptation. But there are a great many things wrong which are not so obviously wrong. They are wrong as leading to what is wrong or the consequence of what is wrong, or they are wrong because they are the very same thing as what is forbidden, but dressed up and looking differently. The human mind is very deceitful; when a thing is forbidden, a man does not like directly to do it, but he goes to work if he can to get at the forbidden end in some way. . . . 

What all of us want more than any­thing else, what this age wants, is that its intellect and its will should be under a law. At present it is lawless, its will is its own law, its own reason is the standard of all truth. It does not bow to authority, it does not submit to the law of faith. It is wise in its own eyes and it relies on its own resources. And you, as living in the world, are in danger of being seduced by it, and being a partner in its sin, and so coming in at the end for its punishment.

The law that saves us from the evil one and from ourselves is, of course, Jesus, the Word made flesh, who is not only waiting for us at the end of our journey in the joy of Easter, but also accompanies us every terrible, difficult, dragging step of the way.  We will all fall, give in to some temptation or another, neglect our duties and sleep, but as long as we keep trying and allow Christ to transform us, as long as we continue to strive to joyfully surrender ourselves to God this Lent, it will all work out.  That's the great wonderfulness of merciful Providence. 
As Papa Francesco said at Ash Wednesday Mass, "it is possible to realize something new within ourselves and around us simply because God is faithful, he continues to be rich in goodness and mercy, and he is always reading to forgive us and start all over."