Journeying Through the Desert: How Catholics Can Avoid "Failing" Lent

Given the date I’m wrote this blog post, you could be reading this after completing the traditions of Holy Week (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, or Good Friday) with your parish. You might also be reading this after hosting an Easter brunch or after finishing your last few pages of your Lent mediation journal. Lent has completely exited your mind, and you’re now welcoming the joy and celebration of rising with Christ from the dead into a new season of life. The sun is shinning, the birds are chirping, and the Easter Mass was inspiring. It’s Resurrection Day!

Obviously, this means we should cancel all our Lenten progress until next year and return to “normal life” right? WRONG! In all seriousness, after journeying in the desert alongside Jesus for 40 days, now is the perfect opportunity to reflect over this season. We should take a step back and assess the areas we grew in our relationship with Christ and the areas we are still in need of His mercy (which He gives to us so graciously!) If you’re anything like me and felt like this season was dry, rushed, or particularly more difficult - know you are still in good hands. God is still bearing fruit and healing our broken hearts whether it’s currently evident in our lives or not.

Keeping this in mind, let’s take some time together to celebrate Easter with our risen Christ and dig up a root that might be restricting us from a deeper relationship with God… the root of perfectionism. We will briefly cover how we can continue to pick ourselves up after falling short to our sins and no longer fall into the trap of believing that we “failed,” this holy season.

First off, if you were hard on yourself this Lent and decided to write a boundless list of everything you wanted to take away or add in, only to find that you barely managed to complete 1 or 2 of those goals, don’t be discouraged. Lent is not about perfection. Even though Jesus told us to “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matthew 5:48), He is taking about a holy perfection that doesn’t come from our own merits, but though turning our vices and struggles to God, after surrendering to His will, and allowing Him to do the work He started in us. Even if we fall, we should continue to rise up, knowing that even if we fall again, we can equally begin a gain. Venerable Bruno Lauteri, an Italian priest and Founder of the order of Oblates of the Virgin Mary beginning in the 19th century, frequently stated a powerful moto. To remind himself to keep persevering during times of shortcomings, he asserted "If I should fall even a thousand times a day, a thousand times with peaceful repentance, I will say immediately, Nunc Coepi [Now I begin]” (Oblates of the Virgin Mary, 2025).

It’s easy for us to forget that we are not asked (and granted, cannot) to do everything on our own. God is the one who initiatives the calling in us. He already knows every thought, every sin, and every moment we will reject Him or accept Him in our lives, but being the God of justice that He is, He values our free will, meaning we still need to give Him our own free response (our “yes”) to the ways in which He is uniquely calling us each and everyday. As a loving Father, His plan was to never leave us abandoned to ourselves, but to glorify us and bring us back into a relationship with Him through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

Lauteri also states that, “He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows” (St Gregory of Nyssa, Hom in Cant. 8: PG 44, 941C). This quote outlines with perfect imagery the reality of the Christian life — being that the process is nonlinear, but that we’re always marching on an upward trajectory. Our imperfections are as closely intertwined with our perfections and equally help us become who we are. God can use these faults of ours to transform our lives and build up His kingdom on Earth in His own beautiful yet mysterious way.

Drawing us back to the quote mentioned by Venerable Bruno Lauteri, the Catechism also points out regarding perfection in Chapter 3, Article 2: Grace and Justification, “the way of perfection passes by the way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle” (CCC, 2015). In summary, we cannot simply bypass the hardships we will face when striving to live holier lives as men and women of God. We will always have to renounce (reject) our sins and continue the spiritual fight. If it’s difficult, that should indicate we are doing it right. However, we can rest assured, for as long as we ask God to give us the strength to complete the plans He has for us, He will sustain us. He is the well of life-giving water that we must continuously draw our source from. Not only has He given us the 10 Commandments as a reference guide to life, He will give us the wisdom, energy, and time we need to complete what it is we’re being asked to do.

Overall, the point I want to emphasize in this article is that we can’t really “fail,” Lent (loosely speaking- unless you purposely didn’t put in the required effort). God uses our little efforts, our teeny-tiny will power, and will bear fruit from what we offer to Him. The point of this season is not to boost our own egos (and develop a “holy pride”) about how hard we went this Lent, but to answer God’s unique call to each one of us to come home - which is back into the loving arms of the Father. What better way for God to interrupt our busy lives than with these 4o days of walking with Jesus in the desert, allowing us to render our hearts to God - wounded by original sin - and to let go of the vices we’ve built up in the year so we can experience the true freedom of the Resurrection, won for all by the blood of Jesus. For all the scrupulous people out there, perfectionists, or just anyone feeling discouraged, take heart. You are exactly where you should be. God will finish the good work He started in you.

Go in peace, Alleluia Alleluia!

“If we look at ourselves, with all our own limitations and sins, we quickly give way to sadness and discouragement. But if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, then our hearts are filled with hope.” St. John Paul II, Address to the Young People of New Orleans, September 12, 1987.

Works Cited:

Oblates of the Virgin Mary. “Giving Something up for Lent: Can You Begin Again?” Oblates of the Virgin Mary, 28 Feb. 2025, www.omvusa.org/blog/giving-something-up-for-lent-begin-again/.

Garrett, CSFN, Sr. Josephine. Wilderness within: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation. Ave Maria Press, 2024.