Do you realize how soon Ash Wednesday is? Shoot, y’all, it’s time to start praying on what you’re going to do for Lent.
I’ve always loved Lent. It’s like Jesus Boot Camp–6 weeks of hardcore prayer and fasting, but then you get 7 weeks of Easter, praise the Lord, to gain back all the weight you lost in Lent.1 I’ll write more about the gift of fasting later, I’m sure, but for now, let’s get really practical.
What the heck are you going to do for Lent?
You probably know that the three pillars of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.2 Did you know that you’re supposed to do all three? Did you know that you can do more than one thing in each category? Did you know that giving up regular Coke and only drinking Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and Caffeine-free Coke is a totally lame-o way to go?3
Lent is not the time to go so hard that you die–or make others wish they were dead because you’re so cranky. It’s a time to discern what the Lord is calling you to, what he wants you to be more detached from, what sin he’s calling you to abandon, how he wants you to lean on him and love his children. But it can be hard sometimes to come up with something more fruitful than giving up soda, so I thought I’d give you some options.
Fasting is the most obvious. Even non-Catholics will ask you what you gave up for Lent. For some of us, Lent is an opportunity to root out some of the evil in our lives. Maybe it’s time to give one (or a few) of these sins up.
- Drunkenness
- Gossip
- Pornography
- Complaining–try accepting the cross you’re given instead of objecting that you’d rather choose your own.
- Smoking4
- Masturbation5
- Calling your sister an alien6
- Negativity
- Being snarky or short or cold or whatever it is you do that makes talking to you an act of charity
- Laziness–try exercising for Lent
- Arguing
- Being picky–eat whatever is set before you
- Judging people
- Comparing yourself with others
- Anger
- Immodest clothing
- Impure books/television/movies/music
- Lying
- Cursing
.
Or maybe there’s something good in your life that you’re too dependent on. Or even something good that is healthy for you but that you could offer to the Lord for 40 days. Fasting can help you grow spiritually in so many ways. How about:
. - Snacking
- Television
- Lunch
- Makeup
- Soda
- Chocolate
- Shopping (the frivolous kind, anyway)
- Secular music
- Sweets7
- Hitting the snooze button
- Secular reading
- Meat
- Naps
- Junk food
- Fast food
- A reasonable diet8
- Coffee
- Cream and sugar in your coffee9
- Social media
- Sarcasm10
- Scratching
- Your pillow
- Hot showers
- Hot food
- Salting your food
- Staying up stupid late–give yourself a bedtime!
- Wasting your life on the internet
- In that vein: youtube
- Wearing your favorite color
- Alcohol
- Kissing11
- Gum
- Checking your smartphone when you’re with people12
- Driving when you could walk
- Idle curiosity–try not reading every sign you pass or googling every question you have. If it doesn’t matter, be content not to know.
- Anything that’s about popularity–checking your blog stats, posting things on facebook that are clever but not edifying
.
Prayer should be at the center of your life all the time, but especially during Lent. Try one of these 50 ways to talk to God on for size, follow this daily Lenten prayer schedule to ease you in to a holy hour, or go for one of the below–altering amount and frequency if you like.
. - Daily Mass–maybe even daily!
- A chapter of the Bible a day. You can get through all 4 Gospels if you read 2 chapters a day and don’t skip Sundays.
- 10 minutes of meditation a day
- Chaplet of Divine Mercy
- Join a Bible study at your parish
- 20 minutes of Spiritual reading a day
- The Rosary–a decade or even a whole Rosary each day
- Go to your Church’s Lenten mission
- Stop by an adoration chapel on your way home each day
- Don’t turn on music while you drive–pray instead
- Subscribe to some solid Catholic blogs
- The Liturgy of the Hours–once a day or seven times, if you like. My favorite is the Office of Readings (Matins).
- Wear a crucifix
- Spend the time you would have spent watching TV reading the lives of the Saints or watching documentaries on the Saints
- Go to confession–every week, every other week, for the first time in 30 years….
- Pray the Stations of the Cross every Friday
- Get up early to pray13
- List 5 things you’re grateful for every day
- Journal
- Blog!
- Be intentional about your time–make a schedule (with prayer featuring prominently) and stick to it
- Go to an art museum or a botanical gardens once a week and just rejoice in beauty
- Break your fast with the Eucharist every day–don’t eat until you’ve been to Mass
- Pick a virtue to strive for each day
- Spend 10 minutes each night talking to the Lord about your day–thanking him for the good and the bad, apologizing for how you fell short, asking for the grace to be better the next day
- Listen to Christian music while you drive
- Listen to Catholic CDs while you drive
- Pick a Saint to be like and do it
- Lectio Divina
- Pay attention at Mass
.
Almsgiving isn’t always as easy as giving money to the poor. Figure out how you need to love the people around you and do it.
. - Donate the money you would have spent on whatever you’re fasting from
- Spend the time you would have spent watching TV with your family
- Visit a nursing home–and bring your little ones if you have them. Nothing takes the awkward out of talking to old people you don’t know like a baby.
- Step up your tithing game from 10% to 15%
- Invite a priest or religious to dinner
- Do that rice bowl thing
- Save up all your change (and maybe even your singles) and give them to charity.14
- Write letters to your grandparents
- Call your mother
- Volunteer once a week–soup kitchen, shoveling snow, the nursery at church, whatever!
- Give someone a compliment every day
- Take someone to lunch every week–a lonely coworker, a neighbor you don’t always love, one of your children
- Perform an act of charity every day–do the dishes when it’s not your turn, take your kids to that awful playground they love so much, talk to your parents in multiple-word sentences, pick up litter
- Tell someone about Jesus
Here’s a printable list that’ll help your family (or community) decide together what to do for Lent.
Shoot, friends, that’s a lot of stuff–what else would you recommend?
More ideas from LifeTeen here and here. Nick did me one better with his 101 Lenten practices–but he wrote it three years ago, so I can’t be bitter. Any other sites with good suggestions?
Well, shoot, I added this post to Haley’s Little Holy Days linkup–my very first linkup ever–and totally forgot to add a link back to hers and all the other great Lent posts! And now we’re almost a week into Lent and probably done with any serious traffic on this post,15 but you should click over and see what other people have to say about Lent. Enjoy!
- This is how I know my fasting is not just dieting–because while I may lose weight during Lent, I gain it all back (and then some) during the Octave of Easter. [↩]
- Giving to the poor [↩]
- I’m looking at you, Nathan. [↩]
- Not necessarily a sin, but it’s fair to call it a vice, anyway, right? [↩]
- Yeah, I went there. [↩]
- Or, more broadly, making fun of people. I didn’t do Lent growing up, but I did make this New Year’s resolution once. You’re welcome, Rosie. [↩]
- Stephen Colbert hadn’t tried his own ice cream flavor because he gave up sweets for Lent. Love him. [↩]
- Options include: going vegan, a juice fast, bread and water, or (my favorite) gray and tasteless. I actually went an entire Lent eating only plain, flavorless foods like oatmeal and dry toast. Consult your spiritual director–and maybe your doctor–before doing anything that ridiculous. [↩]
- The only time I’ve ever had black coffee was during the Triduum. How do people drink that stuff?? John Paul (my nephew, not the pope) says it tastes like sidewalk and orange peels. I think it tastes like regurgitated tar. [↩]
- Yes, I’m counting this as a good thing. Did you read my post on 1 Corinthians? That thing was awesome. [↩]
- Probably a bad call if you’re married. [↩]
- Maybe this should go in our first category…. [↩]
- I do not recommend combining this with giving up your snooze button. If you’re anything like me, one of them will have to give. [↩]
- If you do this, switching to your credit card for every purchase is cheating. FYI. [↩]
- Except for the slackers out there–hi! [↩]
Thanks for planning my Lent lesson for me, Meg! 🙂
Every year, I would spend a whole day just brainstorming each of these categories for each class. Very fun and prompted lots of good discussion 🙂
This is like the Lent cheat sheet! Pinning 🙂
To begin with I love you Jason, thanks for the information, I am Baptist but I see more dedication to worship in the Catholic’s, I bought a NAB- ST.BENEDICT BIBLE – Revised Edition. Because of disability I study GOD’S word every day, my future plans after my next surgery I plan on enrolling at CHRISTIAN. BIBLE COLLEGE in Rocky Mount,NC. , keep me up dated
Hmm…did you mean to leave this comment on another blog?
Smoking isn’t a sin.
That’s fair, but I’m not sure it really fits in the second category either. I added a footnote to point out that it’s not necessarily a sin. Thanks!
Smoking can definitely be sinful.
If someone refuses to quit smoking, though their health is failing…they are spending more money than they have to spend…and, they are contaminating their body, which is supposed to be a temple of the Holy Spirit…then, they are making a “false god” or “idol” out of smoking and are therefore breaking the First Commandment.
It’s worth noting that, in the Creation, we were put on the earth in charge of the plants and animals. Anyone (addicted to) smoking has a plant in charge of them!
I don’t think a correct interpretation is that humans are “in charge of the plants and animals” as, truly, we are mutually dependent, us more so than the other way around. In fact, given our current state of knowledge, which is relatively sophisticated, we are far from understanding how to be in charge of plants and animals. We can’t even figure out how to successfully reduce worldwide carbon emissions.
Give up eating out. Saves a lot of money that you can give to the poor.
Say yes to the mess. Do some projects with your kids that you would usually avoid because of the clean-up involved. It’s a great gift to give them.
Establishing or sticking to a cleaning/chore routine to bless your family and get the house sparkling by Easter.
Can you tell I’m a stay at home mom?
Ooh, good suggestions! I especially like the second one–I never let kids do messy things because I hate cleaning it up.
WE LOVE BARDYYYYYY
WE LOVE BARDYYYYYY. First of all brady is the best. #brady #lent
Bruh
Great list…challenging but still funny. I still don’t know why so many people seem to entirely give up humor for Lent. Thanks for sharing. (I’m visiting from the Little Holydays linkup.)
These are great!!! No joke, I think I’m going to make one of mine “get dressed every day” – I’ve been staying in pajamas way too often lately…:/
Hi Meg,
I’m glad you posted this article. I’m an Episcopalian, and I found your list very helpful for some ideas for lent. I was able to pick out a few that would be good for me to focus on. 🙂
I have a question for your list: You suggest giving up secular music and reading. Wow! That’s hard to do! Funnily enough, I’m a music major in college, so it’s near impossible – haha. 🙂 Do you think these are healthy activities that one could offer to the Lord? I’m slightly confused!
Thanks again for taking the time to post this. I admire your testimony. 🙂
-James M.-
Oh, absolutely, James! That’s why it’s in the “good things” section. Part of the beauty of Lent is that we’re challenged to take something good and abstain for the sake of a greater good. Nobody could do everything on this list and for a music major to give up secular music would be imprudent. There’s great grace in learning to make the secular sacred by offering it to the Lord–maybe a Lenten practice for you could be worshiping through secular music? Let me know how it goes and thanks for reading!
Wow!!! This list is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing, and for linking up with Little HolyDays. Also, I love the idea of Lent as ‘Jesus Boot Camp’ 🙂
Thank you for this! 🙂
I gave up Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for lent…I was spending too much time on those sites! Tonight I was lucky to find some new blogs with some Lenten reading so I figure this is ok. Thanks for the list of ideas…there is so much more that I am capable of doing. Good night and God Bless.
I wish I had seen this before Lent. I would have added something to my giving up Atheism for Lent sacrifice.
I did this, even though I’ve been atheist for almost all my life. What amazes me is that, after doing it with great fervor, I now want to convert. My 3 times a day prays for belief did it to me, even though I was doing a lot otherwise (Mass, prayers, thanking God for many things, thinking only positive thoughts about “my religion”, reading the Bible a lKot, etc.).
I donate blood as part of my almsgiving! It seems particularly appropriate since Jesus saved us with his blood and one unit of donated blood can save three lives!
This is generally a helpful list, but I have a problem with the ‘sins’ department. We aren’t supposed to ‘give up’ sins for Lent… then what happens when Lent is over? Are we supposed to be able to pick them right back up? Sins are meant to be given up ALL the time… Giving up something for Lent isn’t a New Years resolution. To put it simply, it’s impossible to ‘fast’ from a sin; fasting during Lent is for a deeper mortification of the senses. We give up something that is GOOD because we love Christ more than even the temporary goodness of earthly things… which, in turn, will help strengthen us to defeat temptation toward sin when it comes our way. You can, however, give up something that is generally good that might correspond with a particular sin that you battle… for instance, if you are particularly tempted towards sexual sins, give up snacking in between meals in order to curb your sensual appetite; if you are tempted towards greed or gluttony, give up eating out; if you are tempted towards vanity, give up makeup or even looking in the mirror; if you’re tempted towards gossip, give up Facebook! The list goes on… snacking, eating out, looking in a mirror, and Facebook can all be good things — but giving up these earthly goods help us to grow in virtue and to more firmly orient our hearts in the Eternal! Give up evil and sin ALWAYS, not just for 40 days…
I agree with you, Sandra. However, I will also say that “giving up” a sin or a bad habit for Lent can be the first step in helping you to be free of it altogether. More than once, real progress in my spiritual life has come from saying, “I will make a concerted effort to ______ (something I should do) or to keep from ______ (something I should not do) every day during Lent.
For me, I need a focus or a reason for big changes, and in Lent, entering more deeply into prayer and contemplation of our Lord’s passion has helped to give me the focus and the reason for cultivating good habits or eradicating bad ones. It didn’t mean that I was free to go back to my “old way” after Lent, it meant that I used Lent as a foothold for positive change.
And no, you should never need a reason for giving up a sin or a bad habit….Jesus already gave us the only reason we need. But as I say, I’m the kind of person who sometimes needs an extra push in the right direction. Often Lent (or Advent) is that opportunity for me.
this year for lent im giving up watching tv and movies (exept if im with friends) and im going to be reading a chapter of the bible everyday. This will be extremely hard but its what im going to do. im also going to every night at 9:30 put my phone on sleep mode (exept if im babysitting and doing something when my parents arnt home, e.t.c)
hi meg.. thanks for your lent days to do list.
meg Jesus With You. god bless
BJ
hi meg
can i knoww what are we supposed too eat and not too eat? please
This article is so good thank you
Great List!!! I was thinking about doing some of these and this help confirm it!
My sister shared this article with me and I thank Amy as well!
God Bless and have a wonderful lent 2015!
Hello Meg
thank you for helping me plan my lent. God Bless you
Does this make me a three-year-post-blog Slacker?! 2016 and it still fits what I was looking for. Thanks heaps!
I love this. So many good ideas!!!
This so.. awesome… Only today i came to read this..ie,on Palm Sunday 🙁 Wish i read this earlier..
Thanks for finally talking about >100 Things to Do for Lent – Held By His
Pierced HandsHeld By His Pierced Hands <Liked it!
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its good
Hello Meg,
a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for your blog, this particular, a very deep and throughout thought article, that shows how you are living it all true.
However, I can not share what I do not share. We are living in very different life situations, I will not either share it here. But I will tell you that you gave me many good inspirations, you are definitely on God’s mission.
God bless you, Meg, check me out on Twitter @tea_irene – I would love you to join us there!
Kindly,
Irene (teacup)
Nice checklist of does and don’ts. Thx Meg
Well I just found your beautiful website and have started reading and enjoying it. Hopefully I can learn more here
I love you Jacob.
This is a great to-do list for Lent, Meg. Concise, helpful, and relevant, loved it.
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Nice list for Lent, Meg.
You have a lot of quality content on your blog.
This is an interesting topic. I will save it for the next Lent season, so my family and I can make different things to do in the Lent season. Nice post!
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This is an interesting topic. I will save it for the next Lent season, so my family and I can make different things to do in the Lent season. Nice post.
Lay Cistercians recently posted…60+ Psalms of Encouragement to Lift Up Your Mood