Ash Wednesday
Readings: Joel 2:12-18; 2 Cor 5:20—6:2; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18
At the beginning of Lent, maybe we can just sit with the words from Joel where God says, “Return to me with your whole heart…”
God knows that our hearts get distracted and fragmented. Life takes us in so many directions. For so many reasons we might find ourselves living half-heartedly, and so many of the systems that surround us encourage this way of life.
And so we are invited back into “wholehearted” living. Therefore we must intentionally pause.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) encourages us to think about Lent as a period of “giving up, taking up and lifting up.” We might decide to give up material things that are beyond our basic needs. We might take up charitable acts directed towards helping and caring for others. And we might lift up those in need through giving alms, through praying for others, and by participating in devotional practices.
But we are reminded in our gospel reading that these things are not done to impress anyone or even to get God to love us more. They are done so that we might recover who we are.
Half-hearted living is not what we were made for, and Lent is a recovery process through which we re-connect with that which truly gives life.
We look forward to journeying with you over these 40 days.