Figure skater Gracie Gold didn’t just walk out on the ice and expect to do a triple axel the first time she laced up skates. Skier Ted Ligety didn’t get to the mountaintops of Sochi, Russia — and the gold medal podium — without first swooshing down hundreds of others. And who would dare try the acrobatics of the half-pipe without months and years of training? Certainly not U.S. gold medalist Maddie Bowman.

Olympic competition is not easy.

Neither is living a Catholic life in today’s culture. So don’t expect to do it well without some training.

This issue of The Catholic Post is filled with reminders that we’re about to begin the season of Lent. It’s our spiritual spring training as we prepare to celebrate a victory that dwarfs any Olympic medal or Super Bowl win — Christ’s victory, and therefore ours, over death.

While athletes train with push-ups, weights, and running, the church wants us to get spiritually fit through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. These days before Lent are a time to consider what our regimen will include, hopefully from all three categories.

Many of us spent a lot of time on the couch the last two weeks enjoying the performances of athletes representing their respective nations and modeling a world in friendship and at peace. Now it’s our turn to train to represent our families, our parishes, and our Savior well and point the way to a lasting peace. With grace, and sacrifice, the results will be golden.

Have a fruitful Lent. — Thomas J. Dermody