Ash Wednesday

Today we begin our Lenten journey and we mark this with the sign of the ashen cross, which we receive on the forehead.

 This journey of renewed Faith and Hope and made manifest in a renewed effort of love.

This journey is both inward and outward, Individual and communal.

 And its sign, the cross of ash on our forehead, is outwardly impermanent.

It is like we are, like the wild flower, glorious but passing.

 But it is mysteriously indelible, not as a cross on the forehead, but as a cross on the heart.

Hidden from the from the world, but always known to the Father.

 The inward journey is defined by Joel in the first reading - return to the Lord.

By more focused prayer and fasting, we remind ourselves of our true relationship with God.

And we strive to achieve this holy life.

 The outward journey is the fruit of the inner journey. By returning to the Lord, we return to our brothers and sisters in care and concern. By being in right relationship with God we are in right relationship with neighbor.

 And so, let the impermanence of today become the permanent state of our Spirit -

returning to the Lord and, in a renewed Spirit, doing his work in the world.