WHAT I DO FOR LENT: a U.S. CATHOLIC reader survey.

Last year, while already deep into their Lenten observances, U.S. CATHOLIC readers were invited to write in, describing the various ways they prepared for Easter. Readers were asked to respond to three questions: (a) What was the best thing you ever did for Lent? (b) What are you currently doing for Lent? and (c) What's the one thing you wish you could do for Lent?

Not entirely surprising, perhaps, but the "best ever" experiences readers mentioned most had to do with upping their Mass attendance and making more time to pray. Some 65 percent of readers said their best Lent ever was spent this way.

What was interesting, though, were some of the by-products of their close encounters with prayer and parish.

Shelby Giruzzi says it well when she writes, "I went to church every day for 40 days with a friend. Our friendship as well as our spirits soared."

"One of the best things I ever did for Lent was gaining the habit of going to daily Mass during the season," says Jean Blum, a habit that she stuck to faithfully throughout her younger years.

And, as Blum reports, it's a habit that eventually stuck to her, too: "About five years ago I was able to start going to Mass every day. Being able to share in the Eucharist daily is now of utmost importance and joy."

READERS, IN FACT, have used Lent to launch any number of good habits--from becoming a nonsmoker to a person who practices forgiveness.

"I made the decision not to lose my temper. It was really something I had to work at, and it was worth it. I now very seldom go off in fits of rage," says a Nebraska reader.

As a reader from Illinois likes to put it, "Good habits picked up during Lent can affect a lifetime."

Like Giruzzi and Blum, many readers--John Corpre and M. J. Samer, to name just two--greatly enhanced their Lenten experience by engaging in parish worship in a special way. Corpre became a cantor and Samer an RCIA sponsor.

"One of the best things I ever did was to be a cantor at the Good Friday liturgy," Corpre writes. "I offer my cantoring as a prayer to prepare for Easter."

Says Samer, sounding a lot like Giruzzi, "It renewed my faith to see my friend's faith blossom."

READERS FLOCKED TO their parishes to find plenty of other prayerful Lenten expressions, too. Barbara Wozniak of Dayton, Ohio credits a parish-sponsored program called "Ashes to Easter," saying, "It was when my faith became more mature."

But as can be expected, readers' personal experiences of Lenten prayer were as varied as readers themselves.

Some prayerful practices connected concretely with a concern for others. "One of the best things I ever did for Lent was work one weekend in prison ministry to bring the word of the Lord to those who had never heard of Jesus," says Carlos Cueto.

"What I do almost every year is say `A Prayer a Day'--sometimes for 40 different persons or causes," writes a reader from Oklahoma.

Some prayerful practices, on the other hand, stayed much closer to home. Explains the same Oklahoma reader, somewhat chagrined, "One year, all 40 days of prayer were for me. I felt a little selfish."

But Patricia Sylvester, S.N.D. has gotten pretty personal with her Lenten prayers, too. She says that her best experience was the time she "kept a journal of the Lord's `messages' to me, heard in my heart through prayer."

And, but of course, what would Lent be without some plain, old-fashioned fasting--the kind kids take lightly as they start hoarding their Easter-morning bubble gum, the kind the prophets describe gravely as they inventory Israel's countless acts of memory loss and immorality.

Sister Sheryl Frances Chen, O.C.S.O. no doubt glimpsed a bit of the prophets' wisdom the year she decided to "go through Lent hungry.

"I ate one meal a day (at midday), no breakfast or supper. I was terribly hungry the first week but `soughed it out,' and it revitalized my prayer," says Chen. "I allowed the gnawing pains to remind me of my hunger for God."

As U.S. CATHOLIC readers point out, there are many ways to fast. While several cited less drastic versions of the food fight that's waged between will and wantonness--foreswearing desserts or meat on all or some of those 40 days--others found many other things to give up.

There's Christine Wroblewski, for instance, who sounds--given today's vast television wasteland--nearly as radical as Chen.

"In the 1970s and 1980s I often turned off my TV, unplugged it, and rolled it into a closet where it sat for 40 days, sometimes even longer," says Wroblewski. "Without television's noise in my life, my mind and heart were more open to spiritual things."

Rose Mysick, too, found that a whole lot of silence went a long way in making one of her Lents meaningful. On Fridays, she fasted from speaking--from her waking hours until noon.

"I went to Mass in the morning and to my job at school, in the lunchroom, carrying a little note to say that I was fasting from talk--in appreciation of being able to talk. The children at school were so sweet."

Of course, Mysick adds humorously, "My adult children at home loved it!" Still, she says, "It taught me lots. It helped me to be a better listener."

Perhaps the most unusual thing to give up for Lent, however, is to give up the very act of "giving things up." That's just what Maureen O'Brien says she did--with great results.

"To give things up is too predictable and doesn't teach me anything," O'Brien explains. "Whenever I gave up chocolate for Lent, I OD'd on Fannie Farmer chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday and got a queasy stomach and cavities."

More meaningful, O'Brien might well say, is the simple approach favored by an Alabama reader--simple, say many readers, and simply hard.

"Easter always becomes more special when I give Jesus `just me': my thoughts, feelings, actions--just to be alert to others in all ways," this reader says, adding, "That's the hardest."

Indeed, the thing Mike Thompson says he wishes he could do for Lent is to "always focus on changing more toward what Christ has taught us--instead of focusing on some kind of superficial sacrifice."

WHAT READERS DECIDED to do for Lent last year bore a resemblance of sorts to their "best ever" experiences.

There's a resemblance because, once again, increased prayer and Mass attendance rank high on the list--though, interestingly, many more report a special routine of personal prayer than do a special trip to the parish for worship.

It's also interesting to ask the question, "If your best Lent was had by doing X, Y, or Z--why aren't you doing a repeat performance this year?"

Probably it's just reality creeping in. In fact, a broad look at the last question--"What do you wish you could do for Lent?"--reveals a sort of wistfulness for a simpler time, a time before readers' lives got so crowded with jobs, kids, commitments, and poor health.

"I wish I could go to Mass everyday," Steve Ambler simply states. Paula Choppie describes being a college student who hit Mass not once but four times a week: "At that time, a noon Mass fit into my schedule."

So, instead, readers say they do what they can.

"I have decided to read the Bible every day. I thought it would be a bore, but I find myself reading longer than the 15 minutes I had set aside," confides Giruzzi. (Hmmm. Sounds like another habit in the making ...)

For Marian Reilly, what's doable is "praying the rosary more often and observing more fast days."

And yet some readers still manage to sound like spiritual marathoners. "I try to give God a prayer of thanksgiving during every hour that I'm awake," says an Alabama reader. A Louisiana reader adds, "I am attending as many AA meetings as I can."

Again and again, with stories as unique as they are, readers cite their Lenten commitment to change their prayer and personal lives.

Miguel Reyes, Jr. says, "I have always focused on my love for Jesus. This year, I want Mary to feel I really love her. I want to attempt to visualize her sorrow and hurt during the Passion." Therese Mifek talks about "dying to self-consciousness to that I am free to be conscious of the needs others have."

AND READERS' REGRETS? Besides missing some of the less hectic times of days gone by, a few readers also missed the opportunity to observe Lent with their families.

"I wish I could celebrate it with my family, like we used to in the '70s," was the typical response voiced by a Pennsylvania reader.

Like families, charity too begins at home. More than a few U.S. CATHOLIC readers said they wished they could do more to help the less fortunate.

"I wish I could give to every charity organization that sends me something in the mail," sighs an Indiana reader.

Sometimes the charity that readers aspire to begins a lot closer to home. "I wish I could control my temper. Be more calm and attentive to other people," explains a woman from Michigan.

Sometimes, though, readers demonstrated that it can be better to receive than to give. "Be more forgiving of myself," is the thing Paula Choppie says she wishes she could do for Lent. "I find it easy to forgive others but much more difficult to forgive myself."

RELATED ARTICLE: The Best Thing I Ever Did for Lent:

An Idea List from Readers

1. Go to Mass more frequently

2. Participate in regular parish-sponsored observances:

* Way of the Cross on Fridays

* Weekly prayer services

* Rosary group

* Weekly Bible study 

3. Invite a friend to share church or other Lenten activities with me

4. Find new ways to pray:

* A different person or cause for each of 40 days

* A method or booklet to walk me through the Bible

* Journaling

* Join a rosary group

5. Become an RCIA sponsor

6. Volunteer to visit prisoners

7. Become a cantor--or a reader, or a minister of care

8. Fast:

* From favorite foods

* From favorite TV shows

* From favorite activities

* From fear

* From losing my temper, spreading gossip, or simply talking a lot

9. Begin a new habit:

* Become a nonsmoker

* Become a person who practices forgiveness daily

* Become a daily Bible reader

10. Practice almsgiving; "sponsor" a Third World child

By Mary Lynn Hendrickson, manager of research and development for Claretian Publications in Chicago.