Lenten Reflections VI - Sacrifice

Katherine raised a really good point earlier today.  One of the traditions of Lent is that of sacrifice -- giving up something that matters, something that it hurts a little to let go of.  Why do we do it?  First, we do so to allow the seeds of spiritual discipline to be established within ourselves.  Second, we remember and honor Christ's great sacrifice by our smaller ones.  And, in fact (and those of you more learned in Church teaching than I, please correct me if I'm off base here), we participate in the Cross by willingly joining our offering to His.  That's why the "what" of the sacrifice doesn't so much matter as the trajectory (poor choice of words, but it's late and I can't come up with a better) -- what I mean by this is that a small sacrifice freely given to the glory of God participates far more deeply in the mystery of the Cross than a crushing sacrifice without any particular goal.  I needed to remind myself of that -- I think for the last couple of years I've given up things that were very difficult for me (by the way, giving up meat is MUCH easier than giving up chocolate, and don't ever try both at once if you value your sanity) but I never really spent much time thinking about the why.  It was just something I didn't really think about, something I did because it was Lent.  So this year I decided to take the advice of a priest whom I respect very deeply.  He recommended, rather than giving many things up, that I instead give up one thing and replace it with something that would help me to grow in a spiritual discipline -- reading the lives of the saints, praying Compline, something like that.  So I'm trying that this year; we'll see how it goes.

Oh, by the way, this is apparently my 100th blog post.  Only took me about 2 years.  Figured I'd mention it.  Anyhow, hope everyone is doing well...till next time, peace and God bless!