Lenten Side Effects

Monica Portogallo examines the possible pitfalls of some of the secondary effects of our Lenten practices.

Today is the first day of Lent. I’m hoping this Lent will be spiritually fruitful for you.

In an effort to help make it even more spiritually fruitful, I’m going to talk about something that is often an unspoken understanding about Lent: the secondary effects—or side effects, if you will—of our Lenten practices. Let me give a few examples.

By giving up her daily latte from the coffee shop, someone could find she saved $200 over the course of Lent.
By spending an hour per week praying in Adoration, a frazzled mom of young kids could discover she got an hour of peace and quiet she otherwise never would have had.
When giving alms to our favorite charity, we get a tax deduction.
When giving up fried food, one might feel better physically and see a cholesterol level reduction.

Often, these side effects of Lenten practice are just a happy coincidence. When your main goal is sincerely to grow closer to God through your Lenten practice, I don’t see anything wrong with having a little unintended benefit. There can be some pitfalls, though.

One concern is getting the motivation reversed; we go on a weight loss diet and call it a Lenten sacrifice, or we attend a glamorous fundraiser gala and call it giving alms. Our motives and rewards are primarily not spiritual.

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Another is imposing our Lenten practices on others. This could be direct, as in a situation when parents who give up meat for Lent refuse to buy or cook meat for their children. It could also be indirect. My pastor likes to tell a story from when he was a novice, and one of his fellow novices was very physically attached to coffee. When that novice gave up coffee for Lent, he became so irritable and hard to live with that his Lenten sacrifice was more a penance for his fellow novices than for him.

So, what are we to do with Lenten side effects?

Maybe nothing. If we thoroughly examine our consciences and know the motivation behind our prayer, fasting, and/or almsgiving are primarily to grow spiritually, then there’s no need to do anything different.

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God can still change our hearts even if our motives are less than pure, but it’s best to remove any hindrance to His grace. #CatholicMom

If we do find that our motives were more selfish or our practices were inconsiderate, there are several options to improve the situation, including:

If your fast was really an effort to lose weight, add another practice that has purely spiritual motives.
If your sacrifice was more an effort to save money, give some of that money saved to the Church, a charity, or someone in need.
If you received some kind of personal benefit from your almsgiving, spend time in prayer for those in need or donate an additional amount equivalent to the monetary value of that benefit.
If you are imposing your sacrifice in some way on those around you, find a way to impact those around you less, either by modifying your sacrifice or choosing something different altogether.