Lent Begins With Humility

Today is the First Sunday of Lent. The warm up week, or half-week before the first Sunday is behind us. It began with Ash Wednesday; day that makes the changing of the seasons unmistakable. Everyone feeling a little more hungry, and tired as a result. Our mass was at the end of the day. Usually it isn't my favorite thing in the world to go to mass to late in the day, but after a long day of fasting, it was perfect. Now, here we are- fully submerged in the season of Lent, ready to sacrifice and humble ourselves before the loving God whom we have sinned against. 

A sunset; to remind us that the celebratory season is fully at an end. It also reminds me of the sunset we saw on our way to mass last night... Probably the most beautiful one I've seen but the iPhone camera couldn't do it justice.

In my last post, I talked about virtuous femininity and how I wanted to grow in it this Lent. I wasn't clear about how I was going to go about that. I can't remember who said it, but there is a saint that said something along the lines of "Mary is the most perfect example of femininity, and so it must be the goal of all girls to imitate her." I always thought that was a nice quote, and very true. 

The most perfect human to walk the earth, besides Christ of course, is His Blessed Mother. In her and her Son, we have the most perfect examples of masculinity and femininity to learn from.

So when it comes to imitating Mary, the approach I am going with, is trying to grow in devotion to her and to practice her virtues. St. Louis de Montfort lists ten virtues of Mary:

"True devotion to our Lady is holy, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary. Her ten principal virtues are: deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom." 

Thankfully for me, the first virtue, humility, lines up with the first week of Magnify 90. What a great place to begin, for I am definitely in need of it! 

When it came to humility there were a few things that stuck out to me, from my reading and meditation:

First, when we think about humility, we will naturally think about our own sinfulness. It is an important first step, but also only the beginning. Once we realize we are sinners, we must realize that, as the saying goes, "humility is not so much thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less." Otherwise, we might go too far, finding ourselves in the "depths of despair," unworthy of the mercy of God.

Part of humility is accepting that we were not created to live in this world forever. We must set our sights on higher things, detaching ourselves from this world and all it's empty promises. 

Entitlement, which is a form of pride, stuck out to me while I was reading Magnify. We live in a world of entitlement. And I often find myself getting pulled into the trap as well. "I deserve to have these people like me and want to be my friend, I deserve love and respect from everyone, I deserve a sweet treat tonight, I deserve to have my way since I sacrificed my will last time, I should be able to have and do and be whatever I want!" 

(In fact, our pastor gave an excellent homily this morning, describing three areas of pride and how they match the three temptations Jesus fought in the desert. They are bodily pleasures, the pride of desiring the respect and love of others, and I can't I remember the other one...I want to say the pride of desiring power or something.)

As our loving Mother told Bernadette, "I cannot promise you happiness in this life, but in the next." 

We are not guaranteed pleasure, recognition, marriage, the gift of children, our dream home, lots of spending money, deep and holy friendships, peace and quiet, well-behaved children, a perfectly clean home, and all the things that we, as women desire in this life. 

Instead, the Christian is promised suffering and the Cross. Going back to the Blessed Mother, who was gifted with the most precious gift of all, to be the Mother of God, she was told that a sword would pierce her heart. Even in one of her most joyful moments, her greatest cross was haunting her. But she embraced it, holding that prophecy in her heart until it came to pass. It brings tears to my eyes. That every day she looked at her beloved Son, she knew that one day she would lose Him. 

That takes humility. 

For us, we must accept that we are sinners and that we must die because of it. We must prepare to detach from this world and joyfully suffer that one day we may enter Eternal life. 

Reading Magnify, the focus is on detaching from worldly things, so that we may grow closer with Christ. They also talk about realizing what is important; the makeup, TV Shows, and dinners out, are only going to last a moment, but the human connections are going to last eternally. Also, when giving things up, it is good to have wholesome things to fill that empty space with. (prayer life being the most important)

This is where virtuous femininity comes in. Women are very relational and have the gift of anticipating the needs of others. A good way for women to practice humility, is to step out of ourselves to love and serve others. 

I always think of Mary, in what has become my favorite mystery of the rosary to meditate on: The Visitation. She had just conceived the Son of God in her womb. She had been given the greatest honor a human could ever ask for. And yet, she is so humble that when she hears that Elizabeth is also pregnant, she can only think to go and serve her. When she arrives, she doesn't say, "guess what happened to me!" No, she is there to serve her cousin. It is Elizabeth who takes the first step in recognizing and praising Mary.

This is a wonderful way to work on humility; by walking with people, truly hearing them, loving them we're they're at, and praying for them. I am personally trying to grow in my relationship with others this Lent.

I've always been a quieter person. I don't typically go out of my way to introduce myself or make friends with absolutely everybody. However, because I've been quiet and observant my whole life, I know that there are people who get lost in the crowd. People that need community and love but don't know how to achieve that. Or maybe they try, but are disliked or made fun of by others. 

There are also people who have been in my life for a while that I don't really know. I've taken them for granted, maybe told them my problems or opinions, without asking their thoughts or have seen how they're really doing. Some of them I just haven't made an effort to know.  

It is more important in this culture now than ever, to foster good relationships so that others may feel loved. All it take is a little humility. (easier said than done, right?) There is a great talk by Dan Burke that my husband showed me, about how love builds a bridge to truth. I highly recommend it! It changed the way I view people, especially those who have a different lifestyle than me.

Pride is a difficult vice to conquer, but I'm grateful we have such a good example in Our Blessed Mother. With her help, and the help of the Holy Spirit, I am confident we can all grow in true humility, using our feminine gifts! I hope this mediation on humility is a little bit helpful in your Lenten journey. (I really wrote it for myself) 

May your first week of Lent be good and holy.

Gina💕