A Catholic nun I follow on Twitter asked if it was possible for her to love Jesus and hate Lent. This tweet gave me a chuckle because it is honest and because something inside me also hates Lent with all its self-denial. Call it the flesh. Call it concupiscence. Call it the fallen nature.
But as I am sure sister would agree, there is something inside of me that wants to throw myself headlong into Lent and heroically deny myself. Call this the loving encouragement of God the Holy Spirit.
I have found the Holy Spirit encouraging me with two thoughts to get me through Lent.
First, my self-denial is in union with the self-denial of Christ who denied himself all the way to the cross for the redemption of the world; therefore, my self-denial, if patiently borne, is also for the redemption of the world.
Second, there are millions of my brother and sister Catholics who are also struggling to deny themselves during Lent. I am not alone in this.
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