Lenten Discipline

Over the past year, I have successfully developed some new habits around exercising. I am really proud of myself for what I’ve achieved! As a busy person, starting any new habit can be overwhelming, and being able to start new habits that I can stick to is something that isn’t easy for me or anyone else. When I started these new habits, I expected changes to my body, but the changes that these habits have made on my mind took me by surprise.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that exercising regularly has crossover effects on the spiritual life. In St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, he compares the training athletes do to the discipline required of Christian disciples (9:24-27).  I recognize this dynamic in how, as I have embraced routines for my health, I have also become better at sitting down and being present in my prayer time. 

Discipline is a word with a long association with Lent and the practice of ascetism, but it is not a particularly fashionable word at the moment. Rather than monks in the desert, our cultural imagination pictures images of subjecting the body through punishing it, as if subjugation was the goal, rather than liberation. One of the few places where discipline retains its positive connotations is in colleges and universities, where it refers to a course of study, such as mathematics or English literature. This sense is closer to the original purpose of discipline, where studying a subject allows us to understand the world in a way we couldn’t before then. I have learned things in developing my new habits, but the most valuable aspect that I have gained is a sense of my own body and what it is capable of doing. This internal sense of my own power has shifted my perspective on the world and helped me to recognize where I can use my power in other situations. 

During Lent, many of us take up a Lenten practice. Sometimes we manage to keep our promises to give up chocolate for forty days, and other times we give in to temptation and eat a brownie. Keeping a practice throughout Lent, even if we stumble and fall, requires discipline in learning how to accommodate our desires for the short term with what we know will benefit us in the long run. I wish you blessings on your Lenten days, and I pray that the Lenten practices that you are doing this year will bring you closer to God and all of God’s people. 

Blessings, 
Sister Katherine

A Sister Reflects is now available as a podcast. Check out the show at the links below or enjoy this English audio version of "Lenten Discipline" on Spotify. 

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