Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday begins our forty-day season of Lent that leads to Easter. On Ash Wednesday, we come together as the people of God to remind ourselves that we don’t always follow God’s ways and need to ask God for His mercy and forgiveness. Like God’s people in the time of the prophets, we wear ashes to show that we want to turn away from whatever keeps us from God, and to have a change of heart, so that we can live in right relationship with God and each other.

For Catholics, Ash Wednesday is also a day of fasting and abstaining from meat. Fasting reminds us that food alone cannot make us happy. We must also be fed with prayer, with God’s Word and by meeting Jesus in the Sacraments, especially Reconciliation and Eucharist. The small sacrifices we make during Lent makes room in our hearts to welcome the risen Christ at Easter.

This Lent let us look at things a little differently.  Instead of “What will I give up?”  Consider “What does God want to give you?”  Before you think about what you are going to give up think about what God might be inviting you to.  God wants us to be happy, caring and compassionate toward ourselves and others.  We are meant to be free and not burdened down.

Let us embrace this Lent with a spirit of hope and be ready for big surprises!