Ash Wednesday

Jesus’s first public words were – time has been fulfilled, repent and believe in the Good News. The ashes we receive today are truly a sign of the impermanence of human life. Our time will surely be fulfilled, but the ashes are also a sign of the renewal of life that comes from repentance and believing.

We know that repentance is not just regret and a changing of the mind.  Repentance is an authentic and deliberate turning back to God, a returning to Our Father. And return we must for we are all wounded prodigal daughters and sons in need of forgiveness, healing and love.

Ash Wednesdays reminds us that there is an urgency in the air, now is the time for repentance. Now is the time to change our self-centered heart into a heart that is renewed by God’s generous forgiveness. A heart that naturally shows concern for others, by small yet concrete acts of kindness and charity.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we must pray in communion with the Church on earth and in heaven. We should not underestimate the power of so many voices united in prayer! And in our own prayer (in secret and behind closed doors) we humbly give thanks to God for all we have received. Let us accept our own weakness, limitations and brokenness as we ask for guidance and strength, courage and perseverance. Yet, all the while trusting in the infinite possibilities that God’s love holds out to us.

Today let us pray that as we receive the ashes, in the sign of the cross that marks us, that our hearts
 
be pierced and marked by the Holy Spirit.

For it is the Spirit who will remind us, in our darkest hour, that at the heart of our self-denial,

penitence and repentance, perhaps all suffering, is the joy and glory of Easter.