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The Battalion

The Student News Site of Texas A&M University - College Station

The Battalion

The Student News Site of Texas A&M University - College Station

The Battalion

Junior G Wade Taylor IV (4) covers his face after a missed point during Texas A&Ms game against Arkansas on Feb. 20, 2024 at Reed Arena. (Jaime Rowe/The Battalion)
When it rains, it pours
February 24, 2024
Ali Camarillo (2) waiting to see if he got the out during Texas A&Ms game against UIW on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024 at Olsen Field. (Hannah Harrison/The Battalion)
Four for four
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Nancy Plakey-Videla stands in Evans Library on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024.(Abdurahman Azeez/The Battalion)
A&M professors discuss Texas border policies, legal clashes with federal government
Cameron Gibson, News Reporter • March 28, 2024

For a few hours, a new law known as Senate Bill 4, or SB4, went into effect on March 20, making crossing the border illegally a state crime.  The...

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Texas A&M pitcher Evan Aschenbeck (53) delivers a pitch during Texas A&M’s game against Arizona State on Friday, March. 1, 2024 at Globe Life Field. (Chris Swann/The Battalion)
Aschenbeck’s extended relief guides A&M to 9-7 win over Auburn
Luke White, Sports Editor • March 28, 2024

Senior LHP Evan Aschenbeck entered the sixth inning of Thursday’s game between Texas A&M baseball and Auburn in a situation that likely...

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From feral to fostered
From feral to fostered
Camila Munoz, Life & Arts Writer • March 27, 2024

Texas A&M houses almost 70,000 students and nearly as many cats. The campus is home to a high feral cat population, most notably around Heldenfels...

Graphic of Jared Shult on TikTok
Jamming with Jared
March 27, 2024
The EV team displaying their car on March 24, 2024 at Aggie Park.
‘Rollout 2024’
March 25, 2024
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Should an app that sexualizes kids still be permitted within the United States? Opinion columnist Bj Barnes says it’s time to ditch TikTok. (Graphic by Ethan Mattson/The Battalion)
Opinion: Tick tock, TikTok
Bj Barnes, Opinion Columnist • March 28, 2024

The bipartisan bill that rocketed to the top of national headlines after passing the House 352-65 could spell doom for everyone’s favorite...

Mark your heart, not just your forehead

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Photo by Allison Bradshaw

Prayer and interior reflection can give a deeper appreciation for the spirituality that surrounds Lent and Easter.

 

I tried to give up TV once for Lent — it did not end well. Other times I settled to give up the usual suspects, and candy, soda and pizza all took their turn. Lent was 40 days of less sugar and more fish, capped by an Easter holiday whose joy was more culinary than religious.
I spent my Catholic childhood listening to the same story again and again — Christ is risen, we are saved, Easter is the most important day of the spiritual year — but I never connected it with the joy of the Christmas season, or with the beauty of the ordinary Catholic Liturgy. To me, Easter was an empty religious obligation marked by trivial sacrifice.
I wanted more, but I was unsure of what “more” meant until I stumbled across a book given to me as a toddler. I would tag along with my mom on her weekend errands, and in one shop I was fascinated by a blue pocket-sized book with gold lettering. Something about the shape and color was so new to my young mind that I refused to put it down, and my incessant crying forced my exasperated mom to buy it and move on. It gathered dust for years until it again caught my eye in high school several days before Ash Wednesday.
“My Imitation of Christ” is a book of meditations written in the 15th century. The first day of Lent I read the first few pages and threw it back into its drawer. The contents were very surprising to someone who believed in God, but who had expressed that faith only in the comfort of teen youth groups and social retreats. “Imitations” instead calls for the reader to be a “daily sacrifice to Christ,” to “learn to break thy own will” and “give thyself to the interior.” It was a radical message that went against the grain of my everyday life, and I came close to ending my Lenten promise quicker than I returned to TV all those years ago.
I kept reading, though, and as the weeks rolled by those words slowly grew on my mind. I would start and end every day with a new passage and personal meditation. It took 15 minutes, but nothing changed my spiritual life so deeply. Rich interior reflection is an experience that translates into a deeper understanding of service, and sacrifice. I had found meaning in Lent, and I finally understood the joy of Easter.
Lent is too often viewed as a season of material sacrifice when it should be a time of personal spiritual growth. You have 40 days to prepare for the most important day of the Christian year. The season begins with a very physical sign — ashes, in the shape of the cross, adorning the forehead — but the true meaning of Lent is found in ways to keep that sign marked on your heart long after the ash washes away.
John Rangel is an aerospace engineering junior and Science & Technology editor for The Battalion.

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