Lent (Photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC)

This was a common question during my college years.  Wonderful meals of fish, homemade macaroni and cheese, veggie plates and salads meant not eating red meat during Lent wasn’t much of a sacrifice in our cafeteria.  Students also joked about giving up things they didn’t do anyway.

Our campus chaplain suggested our sacrifice during Lent could be actively doing something such as attending daily Mass, volunteering, or  providing child care so single mom’s could attend meetings. This is still relevant today when the one thing no one seems to have enough of is time. Making time for devotion to God, to give to others, to work to make the world a better place or to even spend quality family time is for many a true sacrifice.

If you want to give something up try envy, jealousy, anger, greed, gossip, pride or even jumping to conclusions. Replace negative emotions and behaviors with positive actions and encouraging words.