Episode 15 - Lent
Jake and Brett talk about how the season of Lent is a time of conversion and return to sonship where we purge our idols. Lent isn’t a time where we try to earn the Father’s love through our fasting and prayers.
Key Points
Lent is a season of preparation for Easter
The Church offers three primary disciples in Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving
Lent is a time to seek conversion
Lent is a time to examine our relationship with God and a time to look at what’s in the way of our relationship with God (our idols)
Discipline can be described as delayed gratification
Discipline is the action of a disciple
Jesus in the desert is a fruitful reflection for Lent (Matthew 4)
A good way to assess our heart is to notice how we respond to temptation
Lent makes more sense when we respect sin, grace, and conversion
The temptations in the desert are temptations to not be a son. They are temptations to distrust the Father in areas of pleasure, recognition, and power or control.
Every temptation is a temptation to grasp
Lent is a great opportunity to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures
Lent is a return to sonship and removing the orphan from our hearts
The Ignatian spirituality puts before us the temptations of pride, sensuality and vanity
The Triduum is the name for Holy Thursday, Good Friday,and Holy Saturday until the Easter Vigil
Discussion Questions:
What struck you from this episode?
What’s your typical approach to Lent?
What’s in the way of your relationship with God right now? How can you address that during Lent?
How do you respond to temptation?
Where is it hard for you to say no to something that isn’t good for you? Where do you find it hard to say yes to something that is good for you?
Looking at the temptations of Jesus in the desert, where am I bound to pleasure? To vanity or being noticed/liked? To power or control?
Do you feel like you have to prove myself as a son before God? Where might you have learned that?
Where do I make sensuality my god?
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