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  • I'm giving up being stupid for Lent. Hi my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is

  • Ascension Presents. Let's talk about Lent. When it comes to Lent

  • you know we have to do something, we have to give up something for Lent, obviously, we

  • all have this. But one of the things that we typically can do, we can fall into the

  • trap of either seeing Lent as like this is the time I really just challenge myself

  • and try to do something impossible not because it's like a good thing for me to

  • do, but just kind of like I wonder if I can do something difficult. Or we do the

  • opposite, we like we do something so minimal that it actually makes no

  • difference in our life and hardly even noticed it. I once knew a woman who would

  • give up eating watermelon for Lent in Minnesota in the wintertime. She may or

  • may not have been one of my sisters. Or or we do that with a whole twofer the

  • twofer thing like, "Well I mean I guess I've been meaning to lose some weight

  • anyways and I'm ... if I gave up snacking then maybe I get you know two-for-one,"

  • kind of thing. No, that's not bad but it misses the point. The point of Lent is

  • what? Well, where's the origin of Lent? Back in the day like like almost

  • 2000 years ago, almostonly a couple centuries shypeople came into the

  • Church, it was a long process. In the last little stretch of time in that coming

  • into the Church was a season called the season of purification and enlightenment.

  • The whole idea was this, "OK, what's still in my life that can't

  • be in my life if I'm going to follow after Jesus. So I need be purified of

  • that." Second thing, that enlightenment, is "What are the ways which I need to take

  • steps to follow after Jesus to get closer to him and to start conforming them,

  • conforming my life, to his." How can I let God use this time in me to make me the

  • person he wants me to be? How do I be a saint? So you can realize this. OK, so

  • giving up some M&Ms might not make me a saint. What will? Jesus would often talk

  • about these three areas: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. My invitation to you is

  • pick one thing in these three areasprayer, fasting, and almsgivingand do

  • that thing, but when you do it be really intentional. So when it comes to prayer,

  • OK, what's one thing? What's one kind of way in which you can develop your

  • relationship with Jesus through prayer this Lent? So sometimes again people say,

  • "Well I, you know, I'm gonna pray 12 Rosaries a day." Why? "Because it's really

  • tough and I think I'd probably grow." Well if

  • you think that that is actually what God's calling you to, then fantastic.

  • Maybe go ahead and try that. I like to just take time aside and have just 15

  • minutes, not forever, but just 15 minutes of reading the Gospels; or I'll listen to

  • them and I'll listen to like the audio Bible, whatever. You just listen to the

  • Gospels and just kind of sit with Jesus and walk with him through the Gospels. I'll

  • press pause or I'll stop reading and just kind of pray and sit with Jesus.

  • Those 15 minutes are so helpful. They're not like deal breakers in the sense that

  • they're not so difficult, but they are incredibly helpful because I know that

  • they get me closer to Jesus. So what's one prayer thing you could do it would

  • actually help you get closer to Jesus. Second thing: fasting. Now keeping in mind

  • that the Church only asks us to actually fast on two days: Ash Wednesday at the

  • beginning of Lent and Good Friday, the day after the end of Lent, or the first

  • day of the Tridium. Good Friday and Ash Wednesday, and that fast also—I mean you've

  • probably heard about thisit's like what two small meals and one regular sized

  • meal it's not bigger than both to size meals, you know, two small meals combined.

  • Whatever. It's not really a fast. It's fun because I mean the fasting isn't about

  • how hard it is. It's about how is it, how does it conform our hearts to Jesus. So

  • what kind of fast do you need to have in your life? You're fast doesn't

  • have to have anything to do with food. Maybe you'd say well I want to fast from

  • social media, or I want to fast from something even more particular, from

  • checking my phone all the time. I want to fast from texting. I mean, I imagine if

  • you're living with someone, if you're living with your family, if you have some friends, one

  • of the things that they probably notice is how often you're on your phone. Maybe

  • a fantastic thing to do for you during Lent is to say, "I'm gonna fast from that

  • I'm only gonna check my phone maybe ..." whatever the thing is. You set it up for

  • yourself, but what's something that you could get out of your life that will

  • purify your life. I know so many of my college studentsand not just our

  • college students, but college students or just people young adultswho they're

  • go to, "I'm not doing anything, Netflix, I'm supposed to be

  • doing something, Netflix." Maybe, maybe if you say I need to purify my life from

  • some things that are keeping me from the Lord and Netflix is or Facebook or

  • Twitter, or Instagram, whatever the thing is, it's keeping me from being present so maybe

  • that's something you need to fast from. So prayer, fasting.

  • Third thing: almsgiving. The first two are kind of about you so what do I need to

  • be purified from, what do I ... how do I need to get close to the Lord?

  • Almsgiving is all about how can I allow this time, how can I how can I let God

  • use me during this time to bless others. And now it could actually be, "OK, who

  • am I going to give money to? Could be about money. But I know other people who

  • will say this, they'll say, "I'm gonna give time." How do you give time? You can

  • volunteer of course, but that's not an everyday kind of thing. I know some

  • people who have taken Lent and what they've done is they've decided that for

  • every day during Lent they're gonna write a small note short note of

  • encouragement or so short note of gratitude to people in their lives who

  • they're thankful for, and so at the beginning of Lent they write down 40

  • names so it's already decided and then each day sit down,

  • here's a note write it to the person, send it in the mail, send it off. And that

  • kind of thing is just like I'm taking time to bless someone else so it's

  • basically an almsgiving kind of thing. Now you might decide that you actually

  • want to give money, so a great thing to do is to do that consistently throughout

  • the entire season of Lent. One of the most common things we have of course

  • in our churches is we have Catholic Relief Services and so you have those

  • Operation Rice Bowl, the cardboard thing you pop it into a box and it's really

  • cool, sits on the on the countertop. Now that's great but here's the thing, we

  • have to do it like Jesus would do it. So would Jesus

  • throw his leftover pennies that he didn't even want in Operation Rice Bowl,

  • and be like, "Hey I'm a good person. I'm Jesus." That's my voice for Jesus

  • apparently. "I am a good person. I put some pennies into a box." What is

  • that? Let's be intentional about this. At the end of Lent when you open up your

  • Operation Rice Bowl, you should only see silver and green, and white, like green ...

  • dollars right because, because of this: because how life-transforming for

  • yourself is it if I just throw in what's left over. Secondly, if we're actually

  • called to be Christians. We're called to not just give from our surplus. We're

  • actually called to give from our need. We're actually called to give from our

  • substance, not just our surplus. So this Lent, what's one thing you're going to do

  • in the area of prayer that will actually help you get closer

  • to the Lord, one thing in the area of fasting that will actually purify

  • and get some really some things out of your life that you just don't need,

  • and what's one thing in your life, one way that this line you're going to be

  • giving alms or giving back or offering to other people. Now here's the last

  • thing: When it comes to what you're doing for Lent should you ever tell anyone? And

  • of course the first reading of the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, is always

  • about don't you left hand know what your right hand is doing and keep your secret

  • your holy beads private, that kind of thing, which is awesome because that's

  • what Jesus said. But here's my thing I think people get a little too

  • preoccupied a little too like sensitive about, like, "Well I don't want to, you know, tell

  • people what I'm doing for Lent because that's one get a big head. I don't want to be

  • prideful." Now, here's the thing. You might be like the most hardcore Catholic on

  • your block in your neighborhood and so like, "Yeah I'm giving up beer for Lent."

  • "Whoa dude you're hardcore." But if you realize that there are saints throughout

  • the history of the Church who like literally gave up food for Lent the

  • entire season of Lent. I'm not saying that's a good thing to do but I'm just

  • saying that like my, "Oh, I'm giving up coffee" isn't as hardcore as I think it is and

  • so if I think, "Oh I don't wanna get prideful or get a big head," like, you

  • won't. It's actually bit more humbling to say, "What are you doing for Lent?" "Well I'm

  • praying 15 minutes every night." "Oh, thank you Father that's really intense." Well no

  • it doesn't have to be intense. I know that it helps. So for you, sometimes if

  • someone asks what you're doing for Lent, don't worry about being prideful. It's

  • probably not that big of a deal. From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name

  • is Father Mike. God bless.

I'm giving up being stupid for Lent. Hi my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is

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