How to Make Your Lenten Resolutions Bear Fruit Beyond Lent

The Lenten season has drawn to a close; the Easter season is upon us.

Fasting and penance give way to feasting and rejoicing.

And yet, as we return to "normal ways" after observing whatever our Lenten resolutions demanded of us over the past forty days, we must pause, looking back and also into the future.

What have we learned through our Lenten resolutions? How have they helped us grow? How will we carry that fruit into our daily life going forward?

Perhaps you gave up social media. The end of Lent doesn't mean to dive into it just as you did before. No - you must return to it with greater temperance and discipline in your use of it.

Perhaps you committed to getting up early. It is not time to return to slothful ways - you might rise a bit later, now that the intense asceticism of Lent is over, but still with regularity and promptness.

Perhaps you decided to embrace the virtue of silence more deeply. As you return to freer conversation, you must remain careful to avoid gossip, lack of charity, and any other sin in speech.

The list goes on.

The practices of Lent are not meant to be only for their own sake - they must also uproot vice and cultivate virtue in us, in a manner that lasts beyond the forty days. I am not saying we must always live the intensity of Lent, but we must allow the impact of Lent to be felt regardless of the season. If the practices of Lent were simply for forty days of the year, and then dropped with no long-lasting effects, what a waste of time and effort that would be!

As you enter this Easter season, I encourage you to take some time to ponder what the fruit of your journey this Lent was, and how you will carry it into your daily life going forward.

Praying you have a blessed and grace-filled Easter season!