This is a strange year for Catholics. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the start of the Holy Lenten season. It is also Saint Valentine’s feast day, and although quite secularized these days, it is a day that many of us celebrate as a day of romantic or filial love.
Instead of yay, chocolates and flowers and romantic meals it will be yay, fasting and sacrificing and ash. See? Strange.
I am a cradle Catholic, so you name it, I’ve “given it up” for Lent. Candy, soda, TV, alcohol, and one year, pastries. (That was a hard one.)
But today’s Second Reading prompted me to question, What was I even doing it for?
"Brothers and sisters, Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Am I approaching my Lenten sacrifice, almsgiving, and prayer with an attitude of the spirit focused on the glory of God? In ordinary time, is everything I do to glorify the kingdom?
This is the perfect time of year to check in with God and prayerfully consider these questions.
1) In everything I do, am I doing it for the glory of God?
2) If I am not, how can I re-frame what I am doing to glorify God?
3) How can I go out of my way to glorify God and His kingdom?
Let us pray together: Good Father, teach me how to make every thought, action, and prayer oriented to You and Your glory. Inspire my heart and ignite my soul to turn to You and glorify You in all I do. By the blood of your Son who washes away my sins, Amen.
Are your Lenten sacrifices oriented towards glorifying God? Take a few moments and consider whether or not you want to modify some of yours.
Samantha Aguinaldo-Wetterholm is a wife to Paul, mom to two little ones, and practices dentistry at a public health community center for low income families in the Bay Area, California. She (unashamedly) thinks ice cream is its own food group, loves anything Harry Potter, does not leave the house without wearing sparkly earrings, and is an enthusiastic proponent of the Oxford comma. Find out more about her here.
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