I am a convert and have been through many Lents. This year I am really struggling for some reason. I chose three things to sacrifice. One of them seems to be aggravating a condition that I have. My husband ( not a Catholic) would really prefer me to stop that third sacrifice since he feels it is too hard and probably not something God wanted me to do any way? Is this the right thing to do? In order to drop that third thing do I need to go to confession? I have never had to do this before and I don’t know what the rules are, can someone please advise me on how to handle this? Thank you.

One of the big mistakes we converts often make is setting ourselves up to fail during Lent.

Years ago, I decided to give up pain medication for Lent, to feel my sufferings and offer them up. (I have a birth defect that leaves me with painful arthritis in every joint of my body as well as spinal deformities). Well, a week into Lent, I could barely walk, was not sleeping. I took pain meds, and then went to confession because I broke my Lenten sacrifice. My priest was stern with me, made me promise to never make such a Lenten promise, that I was very much misunderstanding the spirit of Lent. There was nothing to confess because Lenten sacrifices are voluntary.

So, there is nothing to confess. Keep yourself healthy.

Kage_ar,
Thank you very much for your response. It was very kind of you to share your experience with me and very helpful. Hope you are having a blessed and fruitful Lenten season.

It's a good impulse, though, to do penance. If you drop the 3rd sacrifice, maybe you could replace it with something else that won't cause issues.

In order to get a good sense of the Catholic outlook on penance, I strongly recommend Dom van Zeller's Approach to Penance. It's a remarkable book. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/approa ... 1142920531

It was published by Sophia Press for awhile under the name Spirit of Penance, Path to God. You can probably find a used copy of that cheap.