At Advent, our hashtag challenge was #PutJesusFirst. For Lent our hashtag challenge is #PutOthersFirst. 

The traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving all lead us to just this, to put others before ourselves, seeing in the other Jesus Christ himself. 

There are many ways to #PutOthersFirst. Throughout Lent we’ll be led by Scripture to come up with a variety of ways we can do this in our own families, where we work, with people we meet, those who need our help, even the people who share the road with us…. As mothers, teachers, police officers, nurses, fire-fighters, fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, priests and religious....

While we give something to the “other” we put first, we will reap something very beautiful for ourselves and for the world:

• our hearts will deepen as we enter the experience of others, 
• our happiness will grow as we seek to unify,
• our credibility will increase as we seek to understand before seeking to be understood, 
• our anxiety will diminish as relationships blossom in unexpected places, 
• our lives will grow calm as we shield our hearts from the prevailing sarcasm, scorn, and insults that pervade our media and personal conversations and allow a beautiful reservoir of respect, gentleness, maturity, and humility to well up within our hearts and flow through our lives.

Together let’s #PutOthersFirst this Lent! Every time you #PutOthersFirst, update your Facebook page or Twitter feed with a photo, comment, or prayer. Together we can change the world!

Daughters of St. Paul