Lent is over two weeks old. In this time of fasting and abstinence, or becoming introspective and focusing on shedding sinful behaviors, how are you doing so far? A rhetorical question, your conscience can answer for you. You need to just listen to it.

I measure my progress by where I end up by Holy Thursday. This is regardless of the goal. You need not make steady progress the whole season. As sinners, we advance and we fall. We try to do better. The important thing is to not let our defeats get the better of us and convince us that we shouldn’t bother.

I forget the source, except that it was probably a priest on EWTN, said that a good Lent is one that is better that the one last year.

We fall, we get back up. We sometimes pay more attention to our sins and our weaknesses. As long as we remain focused on those, we run the risk of remaining in our defeats. We must instead learn to focus on the love and mercy of God. The Divine Mercy of God is freely available to any who ask of it. (See the Divine Mercy links in the sidebar.) By redirecting our attention to the love of God and His desire for us to be united with Him, we may more easily resist temptations and sinful acts, and also when we do fall, to rise up and resolve to do better.

We do not deny our sinful nature and sinful acts. They are just not the focus of our attempt to amend our lives.

As with Lent, in which we have the entire season to work with and not let early distractions and backsliding get us discouraged, we have all our lives to work with in amending our behavior and preparing, hopefully, for Heaven. As we continue to seek out His love and Mercy, and trust in His perfect justice, we will be on the path to our true home, Heaven. When our exile on Earth is complete we will be admitted into His loving embrace and be reunited with our loved ones gone before us.

Keep plugging along.

I have a new book! "The Sober Catholic Way" is a handbook on how anyone can live a sober life, drawn from over 17 years of SoberCatholic posts! It's out now on "Amazon," "Apple Books," "B&N" and and others!"!

My two other books are still available! "The Stations of the Cross for Alcoholics" and "The Recovery Rosary: Reflections for Alcoholics and Addicts" (Thank you!!)