Lent With St. Benedict

As Lent approaches (it is now less than two weeks away), I find myself trying to prepare myself spiritually for the penitential season. It seems kind of odd to prepare for Lent, I know, since a major part of the Lenten Season is preparation for Easter, and yet the importance of Lent itself almost demands some preparation. I sometimes feel like every liturgical season is a season of preparation; that Ordinary Time prepares us for Advent and Lent, which in turn prepare us for Christmas and Easter respectively, which in turn lead us to the Epiphany and Pentecost experiences and prepare us for Ordinary Time.

But I digress. Having become Catholic not by infant baptism but by the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA), I find Lent very important because it is for me a reliving of that intense preparation to meet the Risen Lord during my reconciliation with the Church and confirmation. I feel like I'm preparing to meet him for the first time each Lent. This Lent, however, I think I'll find it a bit more challenging to observe the season of penitence since the end of Lent coincides with the beginning of my college classes. New academic challenges and social experiences are sure to distract me at least a little, and there's no preventing that.

Reading Sr. Steph's Narrow at the Outset today, though, I came up with a way to keep my Lenten preparation for Easter at least somewhat on track. I'm going to reflect on chapter 49 of the Benedictine Rule, which details how Benedictine monastics should observe the Lenten Season. I don't make any claim to being a Benedictine; at this point, I hardly have the discipline to call myself anything other than a somewhat lazy lay lector (now say that ten times fast). But the Rule of St. Benedict did help me find peace during a time of great turmoil, and I'm confident that it can help me stay focused on Lent even with the hubbub of my daily life. I find that my reflections serve me best when I write them down, so I will also be posting them here beginning on Ash Wednesday and then continuing sporadically throughout the rest of Lent. I hope they'll help others stay focused on the Lenten Season as well.