“What are you giving up for Lent?”  This is a familiar question we often hear this time of year and certainly throughout this holy season as we gather with  family and friends in our homes or around shared spaces or as we come together to participate in church activities and penance services or even perhaps in discussions that might take place on-line or on-phone or in certain workplaces or even food places as we shop and dine. Well, have you given it some thought or even thought about it a little? It’s a great question to ponder and perhaps even a life saving question to consider. What do you plan on giving up this Lenten Season or have you already given up and given in? I think perhaps before spending some time in making a decision, it might be helpful to understand the importance and urgency as to why this season calls us, invites us and encourages us to fast more, that is to give up more, to put more things to the side or refrain more from certain things and activities; to pray more, that is to spend more quality time listening to God, sharing more of yourself with him, receiving more grace from him; and to give more alms, that is to give more generously from your means, to share more of your resources, and to donate more of your time and abilities with those who could use some extra help or perhaps just a helping hand. This beautiful and most holy season calls us to open our hearts, whether they are broken, dirty, divided, confused, hurt, alone, grieving, sincere, overwhelmed, overjoyed, sick or healthy so that our true identity of who we really are and were created to be may be more fully be revealed and realized in the Christ who was sent to love us, die for us, cleanse us, cloth us, feed us and lead us back to our real home, that is to the Father’s heart. Jesus came into this cold and darkened world to gather, to raise up and to bring us back to the Father, that is to pick us up from humanity’s fallen state and to draw us further away from sin, Satan and temptation and draw us closer to the Father through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. When considering what you plan to give up this Lent, it would be helpful to ask yourself, “Is this a true sacrifice and will this sacrifice draw me closer to the Father or further away from him?”