Besides offering our spiritual faculties to him, we should also offer our capacity to think.  In the ordinary way we give our minds to much that is trivial, and Lent is an opportunity to turn our minds to God in a worthwhile and purposeful way.  So we can include in our Lenten rule the reading of some book on the Christian religion which will deepen our devotion to God or give us a surer and clearer grasp of the Christian Faith; or, if we prefer we could read through St Luke’s Gospel.

And thirdly, there is the exercise which is pre-eminently associated with the observance of Lent, namely self-denial.

Self-denial in its widest sense means dealing in a practical and effective way with our lower self for that is the real obstacle to our personal relationship with God.  And so we have to say ‘No’ to our lower self in order to prevent it from ousting God and taking his place in our hearts.  It is a matter, therefore, of cracking down on any tendency within oneself to self-assertion and of cultivating an inner detachment from those material pleasures and possessions to which one’s lower self is so naturally and readily attached.

Such things are the thorns in the Parable of the Sower with which Our Lord represents the cares of the world and the delight in riches and the pleasures of life which choke – and choke very effectively – any real relationship with God.

Self-denial, therefore, will also include the disciplining of our bodies; for the complete person is soul and body and we cannot in practice separate the two.  Each reacts on the other.  For example, if we are tired we become less patient or tolerant.  But the object of self-denial and self-discipline is not the selfish one of developing a strong and independent character of which one can be proud, but to remove formidable obstacles to one’s life with God and to one’s inner dependence on him.  And it can be of value only if it serves to make us more useful to God.  It is a matter of making our lower self our servant so that we in turn can become faithful servants of God.