There are a lot of things about Catholicism I find useless as a former Catholic.
To name a few: shame around sex, guilt for the apple-eating sin of my supposed female ancestor, not being able to eat breakfast before mass (the Body and Blood of Christ can’t be mixed with Cheerios, of course). Oh and, on the occasions a cadre of raisin-like old ladies from the congregation took over Wednesday night church school, lying face down in front of the altar in the dark so we could worship while saving on electricity.
I could go on until the Second Coming about the concepts of Catholicism that no longer have any place in my life as an atheist. There are some ideas that I do have a use for, however. One of them is Lent.
Lent is a period of religious observance that takes place roughly six weeks before Easter Sunday, starting with Ash Wednesday, when many Christians give up certain luxuries, avoid certain foods and practice daily spiritual devotions. The idea is to replicate, on a more manageable level, Jesus’s 40 days in the desert without food resisting the temptations of Satan.
As a kid, we would give up minor vices like gum or swearing. The most common things people (try to) give up for Lent are chocolate, alcohol, social networking and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, according to a 2016 article by the Independent.
Banishing Facebook from your phone for 40 days is a far cry from walking without food in the Judaean desert, so why do Catholics do it?
Catholics practice self-denial and prayer to purify their minds and hearts for Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus. But self-denial and mindful practices have a secular purpose too.
By temporarily cutting out unhealthy habits and replacing them with better ones, we can re-center our daily lives and re-evaluate how we prioritize our time and money. This doesn’t have to be just during a particular period in the Catholic liturgical calendar, just like you don’t have to wait for New Years to make new resolutions.
I try to put these ideas in action throughout the year, mainly in the form of small personal experiments. When I learned smartphones displays can be set to black and white, I decided to remove the color from my phone for six months to see if I would spend less time on it. And I definitely did — turns out apps of all kinds are less interesting without color.
Even when I did spend a significant time on my phone, when I looked up I was startled to see all the color in the world around me. That temporary deprivation helped me realize that I had come to see the world through my phone. Since then, even after I turned the color back on, I work to be more present and observant of my surroundings.
Lent isn’t just about deprivation, though. It’s also about devoting time every day to the things that are important. For those anticipating the anniversary of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, this would be prayer or similar devotions.
For me, it’s making time to do the things I want to do or should do but couldn’t be bothered with sooner. I want to improve my Spanish, so this winter I downloaded the language-learning app DuoLingo and have kept up a hundred day streak practicing verbs and vocab. When I wake up first thing in the morning, I don’t want to spend half an hour scrolling through my phone. Instead, I resist that temptation and make a point to use that half an hour to read. There are many other small habits I’ve incorporated into my life this way.
Whether or not you observe Lent as a religious holiday, when put into practice its core ideas can help you focus on the activities you actually want to spend your time on. Keep avoiding that temptation, and you too can come out of your Judaean desert as the person you want to be.
