Today, the Church is marked with a sign of contradiction: a cross of Dust . As the ashes are placed on our foreheads, we hear the words, ...
Today, the Church is marked with a sign of contradiction: a cross of Dust. As the ashes are placed on our foreheads, we hear the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." It is a stark reminder of our mortality, but in the hands of God, dust is where life begins. God breathed life into the dust of the earth to create us; today, He wants to breathe new life into our tired souls.
The prophet Joel gives us the "Why" of this season: "Rend your hearts, not your garments." Lent is not a performance; it is a homecoming. It is about an internal Devotion that goes beyond the surface.
In the Gospel, Jesus gives us the "How" through three Disciplines: Almsgiving (loving others), Prayer (loving God), and Fasting (denying the self). But He gives a warning: do not do these things to be seen. If you fast to look holy, you’ve already received your reward. But if you fast in secret, your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.
Lent is our "acceptable time" to stop pretending. The ashes tell the truth: we are fragile, we are sinful, and we need a Savior. But they are in the shape of a cross, which tells an even greater truth: we are loved, we are redeemed, and we are being called back to the Father's house. Walk into this Lent not with a heavy heart, but with a hopeful one. The desert is not just a place of thirst; it is the place where God speaks to the heart.
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