Abandon candy? The 5 advice from Mother Angelica for your Lent sacrifices

ACI SUNSA Staff, March 9, 2025/07:00 am

With the Lent season, Catholics around the world entered a period of prayer, alms and penance in preparation for Holy Week. There are many and varied sacrifices that the faithful choose to adopt during these days, but which are the most beneficial for our souls?

Mother Angelica (1923-2016), the founder of the EWTN, explained that the Lent season is an invitation from the Church to consider the end of our life and to direct us towards ultimate realities.

“You’re going to go. We don’t like to think when you’re going to go. Finally, the person who was in this coffin will be a few handles of mixed bones and ashes, “said the nun in a program broadcast by EWTN in 2000.

Mother Angelica, a pioneer in the world of Catholic communications, has shared several advice over the years on wrestling resolutions and how we can grow in faith and prepare in the best way to accompany the Lord in his passion, his death and his resurrection.

1. Offer things that will last over time.

Mother Angelica stressed that Lent resolutions should be those that last. “I need to give up something that I do not know in myself,” she said in the same program in 2000.

Instead of “giving up candy”, she continued, it is more worth abandoning a defect that has a negative impact on us and the people around us.

“Why don’t you abandon your composure?” This is what I’m going to do for Lent: I want to give up my composure … And then maybe these 40 days will put you in a habit, the habit of not losing your composure, the habit of being nice, the habit of being nice. And start with your family, ”she said.

2. Offer each sacrifice of joy.

Lent is a very special moment during which the church offers us the possibility of receiving many graces.

In another program, broadcast in 1999, Mother Angelica said that we should offer our sacrifices happily because we want to offer them to please Jesus more.

“And make sure you’re cheerful. I prefer that you eat three eggs and that you are cheerful to eat eggs and that you are a growl. Some people become very grumpy when they are hungry. I mean they are just not livable. Go eat something for the love of God, who wants to live with you? Mother Angelica joked.

3. Do not forget that we offer sacrifices because we are sinners.

Mother Angelica explained in her program on March 7, 2000, that the sacrifices and the objectives of Lent, in addition to helping us to imitate Jesus, should strengthen our will. When we sin, she commented, sometimes it is a mistake, sometimes it is deliberate because of “it is a lack of will, you cannot say to yourself.”

“There is a double advantage to make penance. Real penances, it is not abandoned candies, for sake goodness. You are hard if that’s all you can give up. If you have abandoned something that costs you, not money, but you cost you something here (pointing your heart), then at the end of Lent, you are stronger, you are stronger to say no to more important things, “she explained.

“All Lent is not to abandon candy, candy, cakes, cigarettes … There is a moment in your life when you have to say no to something very difficult, when saying that yes would be so easy,” added Mother Angelica.

(The story continues below)

Subscribe to our daily newsletter

In addition, the founder of the EWTN said that “Lent does not consist in making penance for 40 days, but rather a reminder that there is a lot in me which has not changed.”

4. Mortifications are internal acts.

In another program, this time from 1994, Mother Angelica said that Lent sacrifices had to do with the interior of the person, with the movements of his soul, “and not to eat or drink or not eat and not drink”.

“Give God for your own Lent. Simply say: “Lord, I did a lot of terrible things in my life. This loan, I will go confession, I will live a whole new life. Wouldn’t it be great? It is not difficult to do, ”she said.

“There are so many things you can do that will improve your spiritual life simply by being magnetic, compassionate,” said Mother Angelica.

5. To resolve to deepen your faith during Lent.

At the beginning of 1994, Mother Angelica declared in a program that there was “a lot of deception in the world today” and that it therefore became more and more essential to stop being “gullible” in the face of the trends and sects which sought to “corrupt your mind and your heart” and to be reinforced by prayer and sacramental.

For Mother Angelica, one of the best resolutions that Catholics can take during Lent is to go to the confession and receive the Eucharist as well as to take up in our daily life a dedication to the Rosary and the Saces, like Water Water.

“We have to pray. Go eat a box of candies, for the love of God. Why do we always think that it is our stomach that is not going? It is our soul that is bad, forget your stomach! The nun repeated.

“Do really nice and pious things for Lent. At no other time needed so much prayer and penance. Praying is a penance for many of you, so abandoning your life of sin. It is a penance to act like a Catholic. Defend your faith! It is a good penance, ”said Mother Angelica.

This story was published for the first time By ACI PRENSA, information partner in the Spanish language of CNA. It was translated and adapted by RNA.