The Best Thing I’ve Ever Done for Lent

Mike Schmitz· Host0:00

I remember talking to a mom afterwards, and she was like, "I was so mad when you had that challenge," 'cause I'm like, "I have a-- I'm a mom, I have kids, I have a husband, I..." She said she did it, and it was the be- her best Advent she'd ever experienced. For me, it was the best Advent I ever experienced, and so what I'm trying to do is I'm bringing this into Lent. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents. So often the stuff that we end up doing for Lent is just like, how do I exercise discipline? Now, I love exercising discipline. I think exercising discipline is a g- thing that we all need to learn how to do, and I'm... When I say we all, I mean me all. But I think one of the things we all need is, when it comes to my relationship with God, to answer the question: what will move the needle more or most? What will actually improve that relationship? Uh, recently, a brother priest had shared this with me. We were in our priest fraternity group, and he said, "The goal is not perfection. The goal is union." And I was like, "Oh, my gosh. That's it." So often, though, as Catholics, as we enter into Lent or any kind of season of spiritual lives, our goal is perfection. My goal is, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna eliminate this vice, I'm gonna grow in this virtue. Now, that again, that's a good thing. That's not the goal. The goal is not perfection. The goal is union. And so I've looked at my life and then said, "Okay, what, what was the best thing I've ever, ever done for Lent or for Advent?" It hasn't in the past necessarily been, uh, giving up coffee for Lent or giving up sweetener in my coffee for Lent or, or giving up n- social media or whatever. It came down to one... I mean, all those are all good. They're all been, they've all been good things for me. But one Advent a number of years ago, I challenged everyone who was joining us in, uh, on the Sunday homilies