What I Gave up for Lent
The question was posed to me this past week, “Why do people give up little things like chocolate or coffee during Lent?” Well, let me start with a disclosure – I did give up coffee this year. It may seem like a little thing, but it can have spiritual significance. It is not about the giving up as much as it is a spiritual journey that I enter into in this act of fasting.
One of the petitions in the Ash Wednesday Litany of Penitence makes the confession of “Our self-indulgent appetites and ways…” p. 268.
We do live self-indulgent lives. Each of us can identify indulgences. They can take control of us or become much more important than they should when we are not self-reflective. When I give up coffee I come to realize how much I drink and how much I come to depend on it. I become aware of how much I spend on coffee and how much it means to me.
This encounter with coffee (giving it up) enables me to become aware that it can and does take a place in my life that reflects a false level of importance: of need. When I want it, I can indulge myself, or I can meditate on how my truest need in the morning is for God and the Grace offered as I begin my day. I can pray something like, “As I have felt a need for coffee this morning, I know my need for you is far greater and of infinite value (unlike the coffee I want).” So I have given up coffee and added a morning prayer that meditates on which is more important (coffee or God) in and for my life. I realize that coffee is an indulgence, not a necessity – something of which I need to be reminded.
I also add a charity. The money I would have spent on coffee I give to the Church. This is a way of affirming that my self-indulgence can be denied and the needs of others affirmed and addressed.
Lastly, not drinking coffee changes my routine. This change in pattern can “wake me up” to how I spend my time and allow me to evaluate how I begin and live “around drinking coffee”. It may seem like a little thing, but these little things can make me a little more aware of how coffee affects my life.
We can, sometimes, let little things become large and important. Giving them up during Lent can help us recognize this truth and make some changes that place them in their proper place in our lives.
Comments
Login/Register to leave a comment