One of my internet streaming services regularly serves up advertisements for help with dealing with a particularly modern problem. The service is a subscription management app called Truebill that promises to eliminate unwanted expenses by making it easy to cancel a monthly subscription service.

I did some digging and found out that yes, this is a thing. There are five major players in the subscription management application market. It made me also look for an app that would manage one’s subscription management apps. Shades of the One Ring of Power came over me:  One app to find them and in the darkness bind them.

I admit there is some utility here. I recall a time when I was subscribed to a cookbook of the month club. After a year, I got at discount all the cookbooks I needed. The monthly offerings really didn’t appeal to me, but I never managed to cancel them before the deadline. I confess to carrying a subscription or two for way longer than necessary in my day. One never knows when it will be useful. Sometimes it’s hard to let go. Sometimes it’s hard to find your user credentials to authenticate to cancel.

The problem isn’t really new from the digital world. There have been subscription services for centuries. Insurance is one of those services. Think about that. I’d say we are pretty vulnerable to subscription services of all kinds if we stop and consider all our monthly expenses.

Catholics really shouldn’t need these management apps, the truth be told. We have Lent. Seriously. The call to conversion implies that we should simplify our lives. Not just for the 40 days of Lent. But actually eliminate things that are just not good for us once and for all.
 
There are three components of our Lenten “sin management app”. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving. It’s a methodical process. We spend more time and energy on prayer, especially in listening to God suggest what needs to be gotten rid of. In prayer, we join our daily journey to Christ’s Way of the Cross. Through fasting and self-denial we put the skids to our endless desires that cause us and others so much trouble. And by almsgiving—charity of word, deed, and substance—we reinforce a habitual inclination to do good and avoid evil.

There are actually some good mobile apps for managing your Lenten resolutions. Some are found in the context of a bigger Catholic app. Some are bespoke apps that help you plan your Lent and track your progress. They can be quite helpful.
 
However you do it, planning your Lent requires some time, effort and organization. Recall that there are three goals to Lenten discipline. First, we are answering the continuing call to conversion. “Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.” 
We pray the Our Father each and every day throughout the year. We acknowledge that we continually need forgiveness and need to offer forgiveness. Sin and the effects of sin work against grace to turn us away from God. Lent is a dedicated season to equip us with more weapons in the daily struggle against temptation that persists every day of our lives. Lent is a time to offer forgiveness to others, to be reconciled before God.

The celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation must be a part of the Lenten discipline. Our communal Reconciliation service is Sunday, March 26 at 2:00 PM at the Newman Center. Opportunities for Confession will continue weekly at 4:30 PM on Fridays and before Mass at 4:30 PM on Saturdays.

The second goal of Lent is to join ourselves more closely to the Passion of Christ. The Mass is the privileged liturgy where the Paschal Mystery is encountered. Committing to attending one of the weekday Masses is a good Lenten practice.
 
The Stations of the Cross are the most eloquent devotions that increase in us the awareness of the suffering Christ both in the first passion, but also the continuing passion of Christ manifested in the lives of those who suffer so much evil in the world. No Catholic should go through Lent without participating in the Stations of the Cross. Mary Immaculate will have two opportunities each Friday in Lent; one at 12:30 PM with the students when school is in session, and one at 7:00 PM. Our acts of   self-denial, like fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and other days of Lent, and abstaining from meat on Fridays in Lent also invite us to conform our wills more to Christ’s.
 
It is important to recall that the greatest prayer is found in the liturgies of the Church. Sunday Mass is essential, especially to hear the call to conversion that the Word preaches on the Sundays of Lent. The culmination of all our Lenten practices is Holy Week. Missing the liturgies of Holy Week, especially the Mass of the Lord’s Supper and the Solemn Celebration of the Lord’s Passion and Death would be like training for the Olympics and then deciding that you don’t want to travel to the venue and compete for the gold.

The third goal of Lent is to dispose us to celebrate the Paschal Mystery. Without the Easter Proclamation, Lent would merely be a program of self-improvement:  “Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world.” 
Lent reminds us that true love requires sacrifice. Our embrace of the discomfort, pain, and even suffering that comes to us in Lent makes us aware of how much we need God’s assistance, the daily bread of grace, to live each day. Easter Sunday, the Octave of Easter ending in Divine Mercy Sunday, and the whole Easter season is a continual proclamation that the Lord is truly risen and lives among us. Our hope does not end in death. Our hope is eternal life in heaven.

This then is the true goal of Lent, and indeed our spiritual lives:  to live more fully in the glory of the Resurrection. These sacred seasons do make us a truly Easter people, a Church who can be recognized by the light of faith, hope and love we bring into the world. We strive to fulfill our mission as “Christ-bearers”, the anointed ones who also bear the name of Christ and  who continue to proclaim the gift of salvation to a world so desperate to hear the Good News.