This is amazing advice! 🙌
Lent began on February 18, which is a Liturgical season of 40 days of prayer and penance in preparation for the Easter Triduum.
Here are Saint Teresa of Avila’s four spiritual secrets for living a holy Lent:
1) Concentrate on Christ.
Through both her life and her writings, Teresa offered guidance for living Lent well. In particular, she advised her spiritual daughters not to focus excessively on fasting or external renunciations, but on what is essential: Jesus.
The goal and spirit of the Christian Lenten season are not “masochistic.” It is not about making sacrifices simply for the sake of suffering. Rather, it is the love of Jesus that gives meaning to our sacrifices and to our lives.
2) Prayer as Humble Dialogue.
Prayer is essential during Lent. It is something very simple: “speaking with Him whom we know loves us.”
With our eyes fixed on Christ’s love, the saint invites us to recognize the truth about ourselves. This is the authentic humility to which Lent calls us.
“Let us set our eyes on Christ, our good, and there we will learn true humility.”
3) Detachment.
From love of Christ flows one of the most characteristic attitudes of Lent: detachment. This is the state of the soul that frees itself from disordered and selfish attachments to anything or anyone other than God.
Detachment “does not mean suppressing every desire or aspiration, nor building a hard and insensitive heart, since love is the first and greatest of duties. Love is what gives meaning to detachment.”
4) Love thy neighbor.
Preparing during Lent to live the mystery of Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection ultimately means practicing charity and concretely loving our neighbor.
Saint Teresa writes:
“True perfection consists in the love of God and of neighbor, and the more perfectly we observe these two commandments, the more perfect we shall be.”