Dearest friends,
You can really do a whole lot of things during this LENT; thus, a life of Prayer, Fasting, Charity, etc. could be gained or regained during this Season of LENT. Most importantly one can also drop NEGATIVE HABITS/ADDICTIONS and pick up POSITIVE ones. This is how it works:
👉🏼Lenten Season is a long period of about 40 days and if one utilizes it, the person would certainly be surprised how he/she would overcome that particular negative habit/addiction that he/she has been struggling with. It is not a magic but the fruit of GRACE. This is true because this is a Season approved by the Church and in which the whole members of the Church journey together. Remember the saying that: ‘Unity is Strength’ (igwe bụ ike).
In the 2021 Lenten message, Pope Francis affirms: “Fasting involves being freed from all that weighs us down.” Indeed, negative habits/addictions weigh us down and make our lives of PRAYER and CHARITY STERILE. Hence, we need to FAST from them.
To overcome such habits/addictions within this Lenten period, just take a step at a time. Perhaps, you can simply begin with the simple acts that have no moral undertone and if you are able to make progress in such area(s), surely, you will finally drop that habit/addiction without much difficulty.
👉🏼Now take for example, you like taking a soft drink after each meal, or that you like chewing gum or eating biscuits, licking sweets or ice creams very often, especially after you have taken your normal meal or that you like sleeping for a particular number of hours every night or that you like spending hours on different social media outlets everyday just to satisfy unnecessary inquisitiveness. All the above do not really have moral undertone (i.e, they are neither vice nor virtue) but if you can possibly regulate them, you will surely gain the inner strength to say NO to habits/addictions that have moral implications like: Alcohol abuse, gambling, fraudulent acts, fornication, adultery, homosexual acts (gay/lesbianism), masturbation, pornography, stealing, etc.
👉🏼 Indeed, failure to utilize this LENTEN SEASON in getting off the yokes of negative habits/addictions will amount to a continuation of one’s MISERY/BONDAGE. The Catechism affirms the above thus:
… either man governs his passions and finds PEACE, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes UNHAPPY… (CCC, n. 2339).
I wish you a successful and GRACE-FILLED Lenten journey!
Remain blessed!
