SIMPLE40 - A Holy Invitation
- Katie Donahue
- Feb 17
- 4 min read
Lent arrives every year like a holy invitation.
A season of returning.
A season of clearing.
A season of grace.
The Church has often spoken of Lent as a kind of spiritual springtime, a time of growth, because beneath the surface, God is stirring new life.
Lent is not about self-improvement or trying a new diet. It is about conversion and striving towards the deepest goal of the Christian life: union with God.
To desire Him more.
To be drawn closer to Him.
To love what He loves.
A couple of years ago, I began Simple40 as a way to live Lent with steadiness and intention, integrating prayer, sacrifice, and love of neighbor into daily life.
This year, I am inviting you again. (Check out Simple40 for all the details)
The Simple40 Practices
1. Grayscale Your Phone
Most of your phone’s addictive pull comes from the constant dopamine hit of bright colors, notifications, and highlights. Without even realizing it, you are enticed to keep scrolling, spending more and more time there. Your brain may feel stimulated, but your mind and soul grow quietly weary.
One surprisingly simple practice is to switch your screen to grayscale. By removing the visual “spark,” your phone becomes far less exciting, almost boring, and you instinctively begin to spend less time on it, moving more easily toward real life again.
As an added bonus, you also reduce exposure to blue light. A small win all around.
Ultimately, it is a small act of detachment, a way of quieting distraction so you can reclaim interior freedom.
Lent invites you to fast not only from food, but from anything that pulls you away, dulls your desire, and weakens your hunger for God.
2. 40 Minutes of Daily Prayer
This is the heart of the journey and where union with God begins.
Whether through Scripture, Daily Mass, the Rosary, silent prayer, Eucharistic adoration, or the Liturgy of the Hours, Lent calls you back into communion with Christ.
Ask God how He would like you to grow closer to Him through prayer over the next 40 days.
3. 40 Minutes of Intentional Movement
Your body was made to move, yet most of us spend far too much of our days sedentary. That is why 40 minutes of intentional movement is part of Simple40. It may feel like a lot at first, but as you begin, it quickly becomes more natural, and you may even find yourself craving the clarity and strength that come with daily movement.
When offered to God, movement becomes more than exercise. It becomes a kind of prayer, a lived reminder that you are a whole person, created to love Him not only with your mind and soul, but with your body as well.
4. 40+ Acts of Service
As the heart turns inward toward God, it inevitably begins to turn outward toward neighbor. This is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life: true interior conversion never ends in itself, it always bears fruit in love.
Fr. Paul Scalia expresses it so powerfully:
“This is the paradox of the Christian life: the more inward we go in self-knowledge, the more capable we become of going outward in love of neighbor. With Ash Wednesday coming, we can approach the disciplines of Lent with this inward/outward progression in mind. We can engage our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving with a view to lessening self-focus and growing in the self-knowledge that enables self-giving.”
Click here for a list of 100 ways to serve others this Lent. Complete 40 acts at the very least. As you go about your service and alms giving, pray for those you encounter and treat them as you would treat Jesus Himself.
5. Healthy Meals
This Lent, Simple40 includes healthy meals and a new nourishing recipe each day. This is an invitation to try something new and to care well for the family God has entrusted to you.
In a world full of processed foods and excess sugar, choosing simple, wholesome ingredients becomes a quiet act of intentionality. It is a way of nourishing your home with real, whole foods that strengthen rather than deplete.
The Crocus: A Lenten Symbol for 2026
Here in Montana, we have had an unseasonably warm stretch…the kind of mild weather that makes you start looking a little too hopefully at the ground. I keep finding myself scanning the half-frozen soil, waiting for the first crocus to appear. It won’t happen for a while yet, but we are being gently teased by the nearness of spring.
That is why the crocus image is not accidental.
The crocus is one of the very first flowers to bloom, often pushing through while snow still lingers…so small, radiant, and persistent. It quietly announces that spring is coming, even when the world still feels cold.
That is Lent.
A season when grace begins to break through.
A slow thaw of the soul.
A promise that resurrection is already stirring beneath the surface.
The Goal: Easter Joy and Union With God
Simple40 is all about walking, day by day, toward the only thing that can fulfill us:
life with God.
The disciplines of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not ends in themselves.
They are the path home.
Will you join me this Lent?
One simple yes at a time.
One step closer to union with Him.
One crocus bloom at a time.
Thank you for following along!
Your sister in Christ,
Katie
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