Need to Have a Game Plan
       
Take some time to reflect on the immensity of God’s love for you by walking the Stations of the Cross or by reading one of the four Gospels, especially the Passion narrative that shows vividly God’s self-giving love.
Olympians train hard. They seek medals of bronze, silver, and especially gold. They discipline themselves, practice long hours, eat right and stay in tip-top shape.
It’s fascinating to watch, as we did in the just-completed 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, these young athletes stretch human potential to the limits.
They raced down slalom runs, did impossible feats on snow boards or ice skates and conquered fear on the ski jumps and luge tracks.
Their competition demonstrated the human spirit: always reaching and striving to excel, to be the best.
In his letters, St. Paul used athletic images to describe the spiritual life. Borrowing from his example, I invite you to take part in a training program for these six weeks of Lent.
This training program is not for competitive purposes, but it is intended to help us intensify our efforts to imitate Christ. In the end, we never earn God’s grace or deserve salvation. It remains freely given by a God whom Pope Benedict XVI describes as pure self-giving love.
Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving characterize this training program.
The role of the coach is to draw out the best in the team. The coach lays out a training program not so easy as to become boring and not so difficult as to frustrate and discourage.
The coach sets achievable goals, prodding the athlete to progress steadily. The coach realizes that every athlete is at a different place and tries to individualize the training program.
So, as your “coach,” I ask you to identify some concrete goals for yourself.
You have to begin where you are and know where you want to be. Lent can be the program or gradual steps that will bridge the two.
Here’s the program for the weeks ahead:

• Prayer.
Some are going to church occasionally or not at all. Try this Lent to participate weekly in Mass.
If you or members of your family have been away, it would be a joy to welcome you home.
Some regular Mass-goers could participate in daily Mass.
It’s heartening to see the increase in the number of daily Mass-goers during Lent.
For those who never pause in their day to pray, set aside twenty minutes in the morning or evening or both to be with the Lord in prayer.
Some might use that silent time to read the Scriptures or pray the Rosary or reflect on the many ways God has blessed you.
Take some time to reflect on the immensity of God’s love for you by walking the Stations of the Cross or by reading one of the four Gospels, especially the Passion narrative that shows vividly God’s self-giving love.

•Fasting.
For some of us our eating is out of control, or perhaps it is our shopping, or smoking or drinking, or the misuse of the gift of our sexuality.
We differ in what we place above God in our lives.
Come to see that none of these fully satisfies and that we can live without them and be fulfilled and happy.
When all that is not God is put in its place we experience true freedom.
All schools of spirituality call us to travel light. Clutching on to things never satisfies. Make more room to embrace God.

• Almsgiving.
There is a joy in giving, but sadly some never experience the joy.
If that is true for you, find occasions this Lent to share your time, talent or treasure with and for someone else.
Volunteer at the parish, in the school or in the community. Help at a soup kitchen, teach people something you can do well, mentor somebody. Give a sacrificial gift for a worthy cause.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his new encyclical “Deus Caritas Est” (“God Is Love”), challenges us to be a Church that practices love even as Christ bent down to wash the feet of his disciples (Jn 13, 1-13).
He writes, “following the example of the Good Samaritan charity is first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations, feeding the hungry clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison.“
He calls us to embrace “a heart that sees,” a heart that sees where love is needed and acts accordingly.
Saints, like gold medal winning athletes, don’t happen overnight, but making the most of Lent with God’s own training program will show results.
Make Lent a time to set aside more time for prayer, a time to deprive ourselves of what we think we most need to make more room for God and a time to give generously and to give some more.