3 P’s (Prayer, Penance, Proclamation)

Lent begins next week. Have you created an action plan to grow in grace this Lent? Here is a simple idea:

3 P’s (Prayer, Penance, Proclamation) 

1. We need daily prayer. We need strength from God. As we spend time with Jesus, he pours Himself into our hearts and strengthens us.

When we spend time in prayer, when we frequent the sacraments, it’s putting the power in us that we don’t have on our own. It’s putting strength where we have weakness. It’s putting light where we have darkness. It is putting selflessness where we have selfishness. It is putting Christ where I have me and my fallenness; and then He begins to spread and grow in me, and now I have this new strength, this new capacity.

2. Penance – Discipline – Fasting of some kind every day, united with Christ, because when we unite it with Christ, He empowers it with his own cross and it supernaturally affects us and the others that we offer it up for (listen to this rosary podcast to learn more about this). 

Ideas for the Practice of Penance - Form the habit of penance by doing many little things each day:

• Perform acts of kindness or charity.
• Give alms when you can.
• Cultivate discipline - heroic minute (get up when your alarm goes off and do not hit snooze), diligence in work, punctuality.
• Do not refuse to do a favor for others when it's possible.
• Do not grumble or complain when things are not as you would like them to be.
• Do not censure and complain about others. Make the resolution: I will not complain at all.
• Exercise patience when you experience the difficultlies and trials of life.
• Offer up to God as a sacrifice what you do not like (sickness, stress and exhaustion, rejection), did not choose (bad weather, traffic, disappointment, misunderstandings), cannot change (confusion, fear and frustration). Try to accept each one with trust and offer it with love to God: "Jesus, I trust in you! Be with me now and help me to bear it patiently. Please use it as a channel of your grace to help others. 

3. Proclaim – Share Jesus with others in some way. Bring Jesus' love to someone every day.

LEARN MORE ABOUT LENT HERE