Lent is about over, and by now many of us have failed at part of our Lenten resolutions. So why do we fail? There can be many reasons for this, sometimes it is because our plan is unrealistic. For example: I know someone who gave up talking for Lent. Is this even reasonable? We have to make Lenten resolutions that are reasonable. Giving up talking is not so important, maybe it would have been better to give up gossiping or giving up needless conversation. Another reason for failure in our Lenten observances is that we are relying on our own strength. For example: Billy is asking God to help him to exercise this Lent. Every day he plans to get up at 4 am to exercise, and each day he hits the snooze on his alarm. He keeps trying to get up, but it gets harder and harder. Finally, he is not able to get out bed at all, and he has given up on exercise. Not once during this time did he ask for help. We have to ask God for the strength to do our Lenten practices. Might I mention that this also resembles the example above as Billy doesn’t go to bed until 1 am, so it would be really unrealistic to be able to do this on so few hours of sleep. People also fail at their Lenten practices because they don’t really want to change. For example: if someone gave up smoking for Lent just to please others, but didn’t really want to do it, they are most likely going to restart smoking. Another possible reason for not being able to do a Lenten observance is that we are trying to do way too much. For example: During Lent, Joe Bob is trying to do an extra hour of prayer, run for an hour, do a bible study, give up drinking, and clean up his language (for every failure at drinking or language he gives $1 towards almsgiving, which has reached $1,000). Joe Bob is trying to do too much, he needs to be realistic. These are some of the reasons for failure, we have to bring God into all aspects of our lives, and that is what Lent calls us to do.
Fr. Thomas P. Galarneault