Now that we are halfway through Lent, it is a good time to consider the progress that we have made, but also to shed light on and look at the ways in which we have not been as faithful as we ought to be in fulfilling our Lenten promises—not so that we might dwell on our failures, but so that we might entrust ourselves further to the mercy and goodness of Our Lord and depend entirely on His grace as we try again, and again. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you check-in on your Lenten promises:

• Were my Lenten resolutions reasonable, appropriate, and achievable for my state in life, or were they unreasonable, inappropriate, and unachievable? If they were the former, can I continue to meet those challenges for the remainder of Lent? If I am doing well meeting the demands of my Lenten promises, can I increase the level of commitment a little for the second half of Lent? For example, if you made a promise to read five pages of a spiritual read each day, could you increase the number of pages to six, or even ten? If you made a promise to meditate for five minutes each evening, could you increase your commitment to ten minutes? If you committed to not drinking any coffee except for on Sundays, could you sacrifice coffee on those days as well? 

• If you have failed to keep your Lenten promises, consider why that might be. If, for example, you have set yourself the goal of keeping St. Josemaria’s “heroic minute” every day, rising as soon as you wake up instead of lounging in bed or going back to sleep, are you consistently failing to do this, perhaps because you are expecting a baby or up all night with a newborn? Perhaps it is not the time to practice the “heroic minute.” There are often circumstances in which our physical frailty might ask us to make different sorts of sacrifices. If, however, you have promised not to eat any baked goods or sweets during Lent and you have repeatedly failed to keep your resolutions, consider why that might be. Do you find that you rush to the pantry to pull out cookies or candy when you are tired, sad, bored, or lonely? Do you find that you stop at a coffeeshop to get a pastry because you haven’t eaten breakfast and you’re very hungry but don’t have time to return home to eat or to sit down to a real meal? Perhaps you can scaffold your resolutions. Perhaps instead of reaching for the box of cookies when you’re tired, sad, bored or lonely, you can first resolve to reach for your rosary and pray a decade from the Sorrowful Mysteries. Perhaps, you can choose to go outside and take a short walk and say some Hail Marys while you push your baby in the stroller. It might be that you are used to dealing with those feelings by eating sweet treats, and it might be a hard habit to break if you don’t replace those things with better ones. Make the resolutions that will make your other resolutions easier to meet. 

• Are your Lenten promises stemming from all three pillars of Lenten sacrifice—prayer, fasting, and almsgiving? If you have neglected any of the pillars, can you amend one of your promises or even add to them? For example, if you are lacking any sort of intentional almsgiving, consider how you might put the money that you’re saving by not stopping by the coffeeshop every morning to good use; you might tally up how much you regularly spend and donate that money to your local pregnancy resource center or to your local food bank. You might buy items for a family in need. Be creative—look around your community and see what needs you could meet. 

• Do you entrust yourself entirely to God, knowing that you can do nothing except through Him? Sometimes, we fail because we think we can do everything through our own power, and Our Lord knows that the best way to draw us to Himself is to permit those failures. If you are finding it difficult to keep your Lenten promises, perhaps it is not that you are far away from God, but that He is drawing you ever closer to Himself. If you are not in the practice of making a morning offering every day, begin to do that tomorrow, and ask Our Lord specifically to help you make your promises joyfully so that, through them, you might grow in love of Him and of your neighbor. Then, throughout the day, go to Him in prayer, shooting up quick arrows of love to Him and asking for His mercy and grace as you go through your day. The mercy prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” is an excellent prayer to memorize and to pray often as you go about trying, failing, and trying again. 

Finally, remember that—as Mother Teresa said—God does not ask us to be successful, but to be faithful. Faithfulness with regards to the practice of the faith can look an awful lot like failure. What makes the difference is that we continue to entrust ourselves to God and to allow Him to make us holy however He sees fit. 

Keep in mind the words repeated again and again by Venerable Bruno Lanteri: “nunc coepi,” now, I begin again. I pray that the last few weeks of Lent will be fruitful for you, and that you will come to Holy Week and the glories of Easter with an open heart.