Your daily practice of asceticism will be streghthened in Lent. "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23, emphasis added). The road to heaven id through the Cross, and that reality is a gift.
(Note: Unlike Exodus 90, in this exercise you are permitted to take warm showers, drink alcohol, and— when you’re with others— watch sports. But don’t be fooled, this will still be a very challenging 40 days of preparation for living the Christian life, the rest of your life.)
Asectic acts can be made both as penance and as offering.
Penance is the interior “conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others” (CCC 1434). Acts of penance are outward signs of this inward conversion that express contrition and love for God. Practicing asceticism as penance helps us toward a profound conversion. It aids us in continuing to make the turn that we are seeking from idolatry to sanctity, from men who have found freedom, to men who know what to do with it.
The Catechism reminds us that without interior conversion, “such penances remain sterile and false” (CCC 1430). At the same time, “interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures, and works of penance” (CCC 1430). As we experienced in Exodus 90, we need both interior conversion and outward acts of penance to attain and preserve our freedom, as well as to become better men. Interior conversion and exterior penance move the soul to God together. Thus, in his Word, God invites us: “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and tear your hearts and not your garments” (Joel 2:12–13).
What do ascetic acts as offering look like? Here is just one example: “I am giving up social media during this exercise and uniting this small suffering to the cross, for my coworker, that he may return to the Faith.” These acts keep our eyes on others and on God in a different way than acetic acts as penance.
But what power do these offerings have? Our offerings receive their redeeming and sanctifying power from the Cross. St. Paul proclaims, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Colossians 1:24). For it is when our suffering is united to the suffering of Christ that “it becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus” (CCC 1521). Our acts on behalf of others participate in the salvation Christ won for us on the Cross. That makes even our seemingly insignificant ascetic acts as offering very powerful gifts of selfless love.
Sunday, celebrate the Lord’s Day. Every Sunday your fraternity is permitted to relax one discipline together to remind you of the glory of God and of heaven. All Solemnities are celebrated with the same principle. (Suggestion: allow one dessert. It is strongly recommended that you do not relax technology-related disciplines.) Choose the discipline you relax as a fraternity so as to preserve fraternal unity and accountability. If a solemnity falls on a Wednesday or Friday, the disciplines of fasting and abstaining from meat are exempt. In addition, your fraternity may choose to relax one other discipline.