Praying Lent: Preparing for Lent

Abstract

Text from the first four paragraphs of "Praying Lent: Preparing for Lent"|Anything worth doing is worth preparing for.|Just imagine that this Lent is going to be different from every other Lent we've experienced. Imagine that there will be many graces offered me this year. Let's even imagine that God is going to help transform our lives, with greater freedom, greater joy, deeper desires for love and service. |If we want it, we will choose it.|Lent will be this wonderful season of grace for us if we give ourselves to it. And, we will give ourselves to it to the degree we really want it badly. So, in these days before Lent, we need to prepare our hearts. We n eed to prepare by realizing how much we want to grow in freedom, how much we need to lighten our sp irits and experience some real joy, and how much some parts of our lives really need changing. |So, preparing our hearts is a process of preparing our desires. This means practicing our sense of anticipation. If I imagine Lent as an "ordeal" or a time I dread in some way, then I've already pre- disposed myself to not get very much out of it. These days before Lent are a time to start anticipating something wonde rful that is about to happen. |Our Focus: On what God wants to give us.|Our sense of excitement and anticipation will grow more easily if we begin to imagine what God wants to give us. There is really something coming that we can truly look forward to. If we get too focused on ourselves, and what we are going to do or not do, we could risk missing the gift G od wants to give us. We have to keep aware of the fact that grace comes from God. This is about God's great desire to bless us. Then, it is easier for us to imagine that we really want to do is place ourselves in a space to receive what God wants to give us.