A pilgrimage to the Holy Land can be an unforgettable, life-changing event.

Now imagine making a pilgrimage not just to the physical places where the history of salvation unfolded (Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem…), but to the events themselves. Imagine that you could step into a time machine and go back 2000 years to witness the events with your own eyes. Imagine reclining in the Upper Room with Our Lord and His Apostles during the Last Supper, and standing at the foot of the Cross as Christ offers Himself in sacrifice to the Father.

That would be worth far more than a few thousand dollars (the typical cost of a pilgrimage). And if someone offered you a free seat on that pilgrimage, you wouldn’t miss it for the world.

What if I told you that that’s exactly what Our Lord is offering us this year? It’s called Holy Week. Too many Catholics look at Holy Week superficially, as if it were a mere historical reenactment of past events. If you want a good historical reenactment, you can find one at places like Gettysburg and Antietam, where they put on costumes to give us a visual idea of the great battles that shaped our history. That’s fun; it’s educational; it’s probably worth your time and money, and your children will remember it for years to come. But that’s not what happens during Holy Week.

During Holy Week, something happens similar to what science fiction literature calls “a ripple in time.” Imagine time as a sheet of paper. One end of the paper is the year 33 AD. The other end is the year 2024. The two ends appear to be very distant, but if you fold the paper… the two ends meet. They touch, and the events of 33 AD and 2024 AD become one.

This happens, in one sense, every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered. Holy Mass is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary. Our Lord doesn’t suffer or die again. He did that once and for all, but in a mysterious way, we become present at the events that took place on Good Friday, and those events become present here and now in this church.

During Holy Week, especially, this happens in a very vivid and sustained way. And if we make the proper preparations, we can step onto that time machine and join Our Lady and St. John at the Foot of the Cross and at the empty tomb on Easter morning.

This is why the Church gives us not only a whole season to prepare for Holy Week (that’s called Lent), but another season to prepare for preparing for Holy Week. We have the Pre-Lenten Season, which begins on Septuagesima Sunday.

During these next 2 ½ weeks, we should prepare a strategic game plan so we can hit the ground running when Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Here are some suggestions for making those preparations well.

1. Take the “Questionnaire for the Beatification of a Servant God,” which is used by the Holy See in determining whether a given soul practiced heroic virtue, and therefore is worthy of being raised to the altars. Spend a little time with it each day. Take note of your weak points and strong points.
   
2. Pray a novena to Our Lady of Sorrows, asking her to reveal to you your predominant fault. In St. Luke’s Gospel, the prophet Simeon tells her: “thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed” (2.35). Our Lady plays a special role, given her by God, in revealing the secrets of hearts. Each one of us has a predominant fault: it could be pride, vanity, sensuality, indolence, etc. That fault is like a plug at the bottom of a barrel. If you pull it out, all the foul liquid of your vices will empty out. Which brings us to the third point…
   
3. Prepare a strategic game plan for Lent. It should focus, in particular, on rooting out that predominant fault and replacing it with the opposing virtue. If the fault is pride, the opposing virtue is humility. If the vice is irascibility, the opposing virtue is meekness, etc. You should study that virtue and look for occasions to practice it. Remember also that this work requires divine grace. Only Our Lord can reach into the human heart and transform it, so you have to pray and invite Our Lord to do His work.
   
4. Your strategic game plan should include three things: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Lent is a time for intensifying our prayer life. This could include attending daily Mass if you don’t do so already, multiplying your Rosaries, or meditating daily on Our Lord’s Passion. Fasting should involve more than just giving up chocolate and abstaining from meat on Fridays. The current fasting rules, even during Lent, are rather wimpy. Fast in such a way that it costs you something, but without damaging your health. Almsgiving could involve monetary donations to charitable causes, but it can also be volunteering your precious time for works of charity. The point is to grow in generosity and detachment.
   
5. There’s one thing that EVERYONE should include in their game plan. That’s a “black fast” from social media. By “black fast,” I mean total abstinence. There’s nothing which does more to numb or destroy one’s spiritual life than addiction to those glowing screens. The black fast means no Facebook, no Twitter, no YouTube videos, no video games. If you have to watch a video for work or school, then so be it, but cut out all the rest. Then cherish the silence and learn how to connect with God, with your neighbor, and with the concrete, three-dimensional world around you.

With a strategic game plan like this, you will experience Holy Week more intensely than in years past. You won’t just be an outsider looking in, but a participant in those dramatic events, and you’ll arrive at Easter Sunday transformed. You’ll begin to experience the peace that comes from being freed from your vices, the joy of intimacy with God, and a foretaste of the final Resurrection.