By Christopher Lenart, a parishioner at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish, Naperville, who is posting once a month, every month, on this blog, writing about faith-related matters, To contact Christopher, email him at clenart@comcast.net. To learn more about him, go to his website: https://www.disabilityawareness.us/
I
hope your Lent is going good for you. I know it is getting rougher as the days
go by, but we have to look at the big picture, which is giving God glory. As I
pray the rosary each day of Lent, I wonder if I am doing it right. The reason I
am saying this is because I have to listen to it on YouTube, otherwise I would
never finish it. My mind can’t stay on one thing. It always goes 500 MPH, and
the brakes are not working at all.
We know that the saints had the same difficulty when they prayed sometimes. Our
brains are great at multitasking. I remember if I could not figure something
out at work, I could have the solution to the problem before I went to bed at
night. It is so weird, but it is life. God knows our troubles, but at the same
time, we can’t make the excuse for not trying hard enough. When individuals
tell me that they had bad education, I look at them and think “so?” I had rough
education, too, but I kept on trying to learn. I don’t think God wants us to be
perfect.
God created us to seek knowledge and learn. People make excuses for not praying:
my parents never taught me how to pray. I think that is a lame excuse because,
if we have a desire to pray, we will find a way. I am not trying to be mean
here, but we don’t try hard enough. I am the same way, but if I want something
bad enough, I try.
As I grow older, I realize that I need God in my life more. I am not saying
that I never needed God because I always needed Him. I remember when I was
taking a rough test, I always asked for help. Did He help me? I would say yes,
but I never received a perfect score on all of my tests. I think we believe
that that, if God can do anything for us, then why can’t we have perfect score
every time? God is not like that. He gave us free will to mess up. If you look
at society today, you can say that we are messing up bad. Who is at fault? Him
or us? It is naturally us because we are committing sin daily, and most of us
don’t realize it.
What should we do? Lent is not done yet. If we have not done what we wanted to
do for Lent, there is time to do it. God does not remember what we promised to
do for Lent in 2019. We just have to end up good for Easter. It is like the
March Madness Tournament. Every team is looking for the last game of the
college basketball season. Only one team will raise the trophy, but as Catholics,
we all win on Easter. We have to stay focused on that trophy, which is Jesus
Christ Himself.