As the U.S. church embraces a National Eucharistic Revival, the three pillars of Lent — prayer, fasting and almsgiving — can help renew our relationship with the Eucharist, noted Art Turner, director of the Office of Faith Formation.
That was the subject of a Lenten retreat he offered last month to about 50 people from Holy Family Church, St. Stephen Martyr Church and the Syro-Malabar Church community.
During the retreat, Turner said he addressed each pillar in turn.
Prayer
“How well do we listen to the prayers at Mass?” he asked during an interview March 11.
“Going to Mass as a child, my mother would nudge me and say, this is important,” said Turner. As a father “I would nudge my kids and say, ‘You need to listen here.’ ”
Adults need that reminder, too, he said, to help us draw closer to Christ.
He explained that prayers during Mass leading up to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, “are an invitation to open our hearts and minds so when I receive (the Eucharist), I am ready.”
“Everything we are doing leads up to that moment,” he said. And “everything after that is an invitation to be that (Eucharist), Christ in the world.”
He suggested for Lent, that “we challenge ourselves to pay attention from beginning to end.”
Fasting
“Do we pay attention to the invitation to fast the hour before Mass?” Turner wondered.
We often take care to prepare ourselves physically for Mass — with nice clothes and hairstyles, he noted.
Fasting “is a type of spiritual preparation to receive Christ in the Eucharist,” he said.
He offered three ways to regard fasting:
First, fasting is a type of sacrifice, Turner said. “Christ sacrificed himself on the cross. I can sacrifice by abstaining from food.”
Next, we are imitating Christ in the wilderness during the 40 days of Lent. “He finds who he is as Messiah,” Turner said. “Fasting is a way of becoming our true selves.”
“What happens when we fall into temptation? We are not being true to ourselves,” he said.
Finally, he said, fasting “is also a way to be mindful of the poor because they are hungry. Eventually, my hunger will go away, I’ll eat. But that’s not true for the poor.”
Almsgiving
“If fasting helps us identify with the poor, almsgiving is about gratitude,” said Turner.
“The Eucharist means Thanksgiving,” he noted. “Am I grateful enough for my relationship with Christ to give from my heart, without strings attached?”
Almsgiving isn’t just about donating money or clothing; relationship is at its heart, said Turner.
“If fasting is a way to identify with the poor through hunger, almsgiving is a way to look them in the eye,” he said.
When you encounter someone in need, “Do I greet them? Do I roll down my window and hand them a dollar without looking their way or do I look them in the eye?
“Am I grateful enough to see Christ in them?”
