What I enjoy about the Catholic Church is how the Gospel isn’t just read. It is dramatized throughout the liturgical year. The 40 Days of Lent are reminiscent of the 40 days that Jesus spent in the Wilderness being tempted by the devil.
It’s not like we shouldn’t resist temptation all the time. It’s just that Lent is a special time of focusing on our spiritual need and dryness, our sin and need of God’s mercy. We give up legitimate pleasures in order to focus on our spiritual lives.
Here is what one Fr. says about Ash Wednesday.
"On Ash Wednesday, we accept a mark of ashes on our forehead, a mark that will distinguish us publically as sinners. What we know privately about ourselves we show to the world. But that we are sinners is not the only truth that we display. The mark of ashes is a sign to the world that we have received something extraordinary and undeserved from the Lord Jesus. What have we received? A word of forgiveness that is creative, living and effective, which if accepted, gives to us and to the world, what we need most- the gift of a new start and the unexpected grace of another chance.”
- Fr. Steve Grunow
Ash Wednesday is a time of public confession of oneself as a sinner. It is also a public confession of Christ, the One who forgives sinners.
It is a time to reflect on the fact that we are but dust, and to dust we will return.
It is a time to recognize our need and our poverty.
It is a time to recognize that God is merciful, able and willing to forgive us and cleanse us.
It is a time to recognize our need for beauty and life. All found in God.
It is a time to accept God’s grace in Christ.
Here is a beautiful, short film about the meaning of Ash Wednesday.
Here is a beautiful, short film about the meaning of Ash Wednesday.
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