Distant sound of Lent approaching

A rare Sunday message today, about Septuagesima70, a plan that begins today and continues through Lent. 

I'm not a program person, because the Liturgical Year offers us what we need in the spiritual realm. This plan is simply a way to put into practice the change of heart necessary for Christian life. It begins today on the traditional day, Septaugesima Sunday, of heeding the Lenten call, albeit heard in the distance. 

It's not something separate, a sort of "brighter idea, added onto or replacing Lent -- I would be totally against any such thing. 

No, sometimes we just need something to be spelled out, and that's what this is.

We are still two (and a bit) weeks away from Ash Wednesday. In the Novus Ordo calendar, it's "Ordinary Time." But even so, we have been aware in the liturgy of a growing emphasis on God's Law and His holy ways, and the necessity of adhering to them. How to do it?

God has given us a way to go along with Him on the path to Heaven. It has to do with our inner life, the hidden closet into which we must go with a repentant heart, in order to find and follow Him.

A transformation occurs when we start to live in His divine life. It requires a visceral, interior cooperation from us -- especially in our willingness to start again and again, after each failure and fall, to acquire certain habits that ultimately become virtues. For a virtue is simply this: a good habit that becomes part of us, a second nature; it's just that for a Christian, that "second" nature is divine.

As with any habit, at first, effort -- sometimes great effort -- is needed. And this is where the Liturgical Year comes in. The cycle of days and seasons offered by the Church offer us the right moments in which to respond to God's call. Now is the acceptable time.

The best plan -- and it can be put into practice at any moment, but let's say now is a good opportunity -- has certain elements in it:

It motivates us to put forth the necessary effort, but also doesn't cause us to lose courage. 

It aims high, but doesn't dismay. 

It involves camaraderie -- knowing others are also trying, at that particular time, to get similar habits helps us run the race. 

It has the components that acknowledge our human nature: physical and spiritual. 

It also gives us the advantage of a spiritual director, so we don't go too easy or too hard on ourselves, by relying on ourselves. I know Fr. Mark Withoos, the chaplain, very well -- he is an old friend. He combines a thorough knowledge of traditional practices in austerity, penance, and self-abnegation with a generous, heartening, and cheerful attitude. 

The life of virtue is a life of good habits won through mortification in every area. Good habits require knowledge, practice, fortitude, prayer, self-awareness, and something outside of oneself to correct.

I think Septuagesima70 is a way to acquire a newness of life -- just in time for Easter! The practices start tomorrow. Today, reflect!