You may have more on your plate than you can manage, and so thinking about Lent ahead of time may be completely off your radar. Yet now is precisely the time to think about it so that you can take full advantage of those 40 precious days marked out by the Church for your benefit. Lent is a sacred time during which we are invited to reflect, re-evaluate and renew our faith and relationship with God. But all that takes time and effort that we might think we do not have.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem offers gentle admonishment for those of us who think we are too busy or burdened to give serious thought to Lent. He said, “Have you run so many circles of the years bustling vainly about the world, and yet you don’t have 40 days to be free for prayer for your own soul’s sake?” Bustling vainly about the world fits the description of my life right now, and I imagine it might fit yours as well.

Perhaps it will help if we consider what it means to be “free for prayer for our own sakes,” as St. Cyril said. The Almighty is complete in and of himself. He is All-Powerful and All-Loving. He does not need us; we need him. He does not need us to pray to him; it is we who need to pray to him.  During Lent, we need to empty ourselves and open our hearts to our Lord and the way he wishes to transform us. The Catechism explains how that might be done:

The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works). (CCC 1438)

Before we jump headlong into these practices, we first need to bring ourselves into the correct disposition to conduct Lenten practices. We also need to think carefully about which practices we should adhere to and how best to go about it. The Church universally requires us to fast, give alms and do penance during Lent. How we fulfill those requirements — aside from the necessary fasting and abstaining from meat on Fridays — is up to us. Anything we do beyond that is our own decision.

The best example for us to follow, of course, is that of Jesus in the desert. It was there that he showed us how to remove ourselves from the world in the spirit of sacrifice and prayer so that we can learn to harden ourselves against the temptations of the devil. Again, we find in the Catechism:

This is why Christ vanquished the Tempter for us: ‘For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sinning.’ By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert. (CCC 519)

If we spend our Lent focused on the mystery of Jesus in the desert and with careful preparation, it will not simply happen. Rather, it will be a time of purging anything that interferes with our relationship with God, learning more about ourselves, and growing in our love for and likeness to him. Now is the time to prepare for Lent.