50 More Suggestions for Lenten Acts

Following a previous post, here are 50 more suggestions for Lenten penance.  These try to be contemporary, and go beyond the "give us sweets" understanding of this important season.  Remember, pick one or two--not all 100!  (Also, refrain from telling your friends or enemies which of these acts they should do in Lent.  The log is always bigger in our eye.)

51-60 For Those With Lives Out of Balance

1. Go for a walk each day.  Take a friend or loved one and talk about your faith life.
2. If you have children, take your kids to a park for carefree time.
3. Give up fast food and give the money to charity.  [OUCH, this one would be hard for me!]
4. Exercise daily.
5. Sit down with your spouse once a week for 30 minutes and have a meaningful conversation about your marriage.
6. Go on a Lenten retreat; or schedule yourself to go on a retreat during the summer.
7. Pray with the website "Sacred Space" ( www.sacredspace.ie ) often.
8. Commit to pray for the poor every morning.
9. Begin the online "34-week Retreat for Everyday Life."
10. Give up your most unhealthy habit.

61-70 For Those Who Need Spiritual Nourishment

1. Read the four constitutions of the Documents of Vatican II.  Begin with Gaudium et Spes.
2. Buy "The U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults" and read a chapter a week.
3. Sign up for an adult formation course in your parish or a nearby parish/retreat center.
4. Join a bible study.
5. Attend the Stations of the Cross.
6. Read "The Imitation of Christ" or purchase a subscription to a Catholic magazine.
7. Listen to a Catholic book by rented audio in your car.  Or listen to the audio version of the New Testament books in your car.
8. Find a spiritual director for yourself.
9. Read "The Introduction to the Devout Life" or the "Confessions of St. Augustine."
10. Read Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, or one of his three-volume reflections on the Gospels, "Jesus of Nazareth."  

71-80 For Those Who Need to Increase Their Service to the Needy

1. Volunteer at a local soup kitchen, pantry or food program.
2. Coordinate a blood drive at your church.
3. Find out who is sick in your parish and offer to visit them.  If you do not have transportation, inquire if your church has a "card ministry" of sending cards to the shut-ins and sick, and participate.
4. Call your local Catholic Charities office and volunteer your time.
5. Begin making visits to a nearby nursing home or hospital.
6. Help an elderly or disabled person in your neighborhood with yard work or rides.
7. Find out if your diocese has a legislative action committee, and assist in lobbying political leaders on important social/moral legislation.
8. Become part of a prison ministry team.
9. Coordinate a clothing drive.
10. Make rosaries and give them away.

81-90 For Those Who Wish to be More Active in Their Parish

1. If your pastor doesn't know your name, introduce yourself after Sunday Mass, and ask if you can take him out to breakfast.
2. Become a lector or eucharistic minister or usher/hospitality greeter.
3. Volunteer to help with the parish youth group, or preparing funeral luncheons for the bereaved.
4. After Sunday Mass introduce yourself to someone sitting next to you whom you don't know.
5. Join the Knights of Columbus.
6. Call the religious education director and offer to be a Confirmation sponsor.
7. Sing at Sunday Mass.
8. Help with the RCIA program.
9. Volunteer to the parish business manager to do lawn work, maintenance, or some professional service.
10. Think of a ministry that your parish does not have, talk with the pastor, and offer to begin it.

91-100 Potpourri for Lent

1. Make a personal commitment to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation three times a year.
2. Give up foul or vulgar language, or viewing pornography on the internet.  Put a dollar in a bowl for every time you slip, and give the money away.
3. Hold yourself back from gossiping.
4. Study the lives of saints who interest you.
5. Begin practicing socially conscious investing.
6. Inform yourself about the seven principles of Catholic social teaching.
7. Take your pastor out to lunch or dinner. [Sorry, that's so self-serving.]
8. Pray for your bishop and the pope.
9. Smile. 
10. Resolve to know Jesus in a personal way as a friend by the end of Lent and the celebration of Easter.

P.S.  I found most of these on the "Young Fogeys" blog of Father Jay Toborowsky, of New Jersey, from a post dated February 23, 2012.  He attributed most of them to a friend of his, Father Greg Shaffer, a chaplain at George Washington University in Washington, DC.  An internet thanks to both of them.