Lent begins on March 5, which is a Liturgical season of 40 days of prayer and penance in preparation for the Easter Triduum.
Here are Saint Teresa of Avila’s four spiritual tips for living a holy Lent:
1) Concentrate on Christ.
Teresa, with her life and her writings, provided advice for experiencing a holy Lent.
In particular, she recommended her spiritual daughters focus not so much on excessive fasting or renunciation, but on the essential: Jesus.
Neither the goal nor the spirit of Christian Lent tends to be “masochistic”– it is not a question of making sacrifices just to make them. It is the love of Jesus that gives meaning to our lives.
2) Prayer as Humble Dialogue.
Prayer is so important during Lent. It consists of a very simple thing: “talking to Him whom we know loves us.”
With eyes focused on the love of Christ, the saint invites us to understand our reality. This is the true humility to which Lent invites you.
“Let us set our eyes on Christ, our good, and there we will learn true humility.”
3) Detachment.
From the love of Christ derives one of the most typical attitudes of Lent: detachment, or rather, the state of the soul, which frees itself from any inordinate and selfish affection towards anything or anyone other than God.
Detachment “does not mean suppression of any desire and aspiration, nor building a hard and insensitive heart, seeing that love is the first and greatest of duties. Love gives meaning to detachment.”
4) Love thy neighbor.
Preparing in Lent to live the mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus finally means living charity and concretely loving one’s neighbor.
Saint Teresa writes,
“True perfection is the love of God and neighbor, and the more we follow these two commandments perfectly, the more perfect we will be.”