Not Alone Series: LENT

How is LENT almost over?!!? I feel like it just started?!!? The last month or so has just flown by! I wrote a little bit about Lent in one of my Quick Takes last week but let me do some expanding today.

Lent is going. I always feel like Lent is just this time of drama. Not in a bad way just in a way that there are a lot of things going on but because it’s lent we’re always thinking about God, Church, Jesus, and Easter.

As a daughter of someone that works for the church I always tell people that from Lent until May are the busiest time at church and most people never understand it because they never see the behind the scenes things that go on in parish life. Between RCIA, sacrament prep, retreats, the Triduum, the easter vigil, sacraments, first communion, and confirmation it is a very busy place to be. On top of all that our parish is currently closed for renovations set to open on Saturday!

So in the midst of the busy what have I been doing this Lent? I have been doing A LOT of praying. A LOT. I’ve been trying to go to adoration 1-2 times a week and it has been pretty crowded when I go which is AWESOME! I love going when others are there. I’ve also been going in the evening for the closing of Adoration for Benediction and have been enjoying learning/saying those prayers.

A few weeks ago my diocese had a Eucharistic Congress. That was an amazing event. We had a young adult track on Friday night that had some great speakers to relate the eucharist to everyday life.

The bishop came in with the Eucharist for adoration and he even gave us several tips for enjoying mass as a young person when we have all these secular things that can be more entertaining than mass at times. And they were very simple things like reading the readings before going to mass, listening to the homily and applying it to your life, participating in the singing, and even volunteering to be a lector or Eucharistic Minister. Like anything you need to put the energy into mass that you want to receive from it. He also said that people have tried to tell him that the Eucharist is a Devotion (similar to the rosary) and he has to correct them that the Eucharist is not a devotion but the Eucharist is THE LORD.

I have also been reading the book, Saint John the Great: His Five Great Loves by Jason Evert. I’ve been enjoying this book and hope to finish it by Easter….yeah that probably won’t happen but I’m a work in progress.

I’m using a Lent Calendar to pray for different people and things each day. Sometimes I get behind and pray for several people and things all at once. Which is what I’m going to do tonight since the calendar is currently buried under a bunch of mail on my desk.

I have also been really enjoying the Best Lent Ever and #ShareJesus videos.

I LOVE the Share Jesus videos. There is a new one each day and each one has a different speaker and a lot of “famous” Catholics that I have heard before in other videos, books, or conferences. I also love that they are all less than 3 minutes long and they are set up in a way that it is really easy to share them on social media. I usually see them shared a few times throughout the day on social media.

The Best Lent Ever Videos are on the long side but full of really good information. Last week the video about How to Read the Bible was full of a ton of great information I even took notes!

This week my parish is having a Parish Mission that a Deacon and his wife are speaking at. I’m hoping to make it a few of the days especially on Wednesday since they are also having Confession during that night.

I always feel Lent is a good time of year for us to refocus our faith life.  Also check-out my link-up if you need some meatless recipes for the last few Fridays of Lent. There are a lot of great ideas there.

Thanks for Jen and Morgan for hosting!