Lent 2019: the 1% Challenge
Here is our last installment detailing our Lenten Initiatives, the 1% Challenge. The 1% Challenge comes from a group in Wisconsin called Evangelical Catholic. They offer this challenge to any parish who is interested in the members of the parish deepening their relationship with Jesus. The 1% Challenge is simple: a 30-day challenge to spend 15 minutes of prayer each day with the Bible. Let’s explore this challenge.
Why a 30-day challenge?
The challenge is 30 days because studies in psychology indicate that it takes around a month or 30 days to build a new habit into your life. The habit we are looking to build is prayer. I think we can all admit that our relationship with God would look different if we spent 15 minutes each day with Him.
Why 15 minutes or prayer?
15 minutes of prayer connects with the actual name of the challenge: the 1% Challenge. Within each day, we all have the same amount of time: 1440 minutes. 1% of 1440 minutes is 14 minutes and 40 seconds. For the sake of simplification, we can round that up by 20 seconds and get 15 minutes. The challenge is simple, we are asking you to dedicate only 1% of your day to your relationship with God.
For many of us if not all of us, it can FEEL like we are busy from sun up to sun down. Our days have become filled with task after task. Many times by evening, we are exhausted and tired from a full's day of work. It can be a challenge to do the things necessary for a healthy and wholesome life. However, all of us can admit we know that deep down if we spent quality time with God each and every day, it would change our lives drastically. Adding a new habit is challenging, but this challenge is the most worthwhile one we could take.
Why prayer with the Bible?
Catholics have learned how to talk to God. We have learned many prayers: the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Mass, and the list goes on. At some time in our life, most of us have knelt down in a church or our room and talked to God with our own words.
The biggest experience we lack and have not been taught is how to listen and hear God. One way for us to hear God is to pray with the Bible. The Bible is known as the WORD of God. When we pray with the Bible, we hear God speak to us and our connection with Him.
When is the 1% Challenge?
On our celebration of the Lord’s Day on March 16 and 17, we will introduce this to challenge to the whole parish. Fr. Royce will devote his homily to the 1% Challenge and teach us how to pray with the Bible. We will be passing out two pieces of material: a com
mitment card and a challenge card.
The commitment card is your official commitment to the 1% Challenge. We will database your commitment and reach out to you to offer support during the challenge. We have also set up a Facebook group on our Facebook page to help keep you connected to all those in our parish who take the challenge. We hope you will be inspired by all those who are doing the challenge with you. The challenge card will teach you how to pray with the Bible and give you 30 Bible passages to pray with during the challenge.
We only have one question to ask: Will you take the challenge?
