Seeing Ash Wednesday on the calendar used to bring up many feelings, but joy was not one of them. Perceiving Lent through a worldly lens, I approached it as a season of deprivation. It arrives at a time of year when my energy is attenuated by the bitter cold and there is an outdoor palette ranging from taupe to greige. Then it asks me to forsake the ready solace of wine and chocolate!

By the grace of God, I have come to appreciate the figure-ground illusion at work here. Seen through a holy lens, sensory pleasures recede, and their absence (or the absence of at least some of them) during Lent becomes a background against which spiritual gifts can really pop, offering surprise and delight. The season requires me to renew my relationship with everything most important, and gives me reliable tools for doing so: Pray more, and more deliberately. Spend more time at church, whether for Mass, Stations of the Cross or other devotions. Be hungry more often, and offer up your hunger. Be more charitable, and give alms.