Ash Wednesday: A Day of Recollection & Invitation Plus Lenten Resources


It's that time of year again -- the time of both internal and external recollection that we are setting out on a journey. On Ash Wednesday, the ashes placed on our forehead invite us to begin a new journey of repentance. They invite us to turn again to God and to receive new life. Once again, we are called to let God penetrate deeper into our lives, for indeed, turning back to Him with our whole hearts is a submission to His holy will. Lent is a time when we permit God to purify our hearts allow Him to unite our wills with His.

I love Lent because it is a time of interior spring cleaning and obtaining new strength and great graces from God. Although I have just returned from pilgrimage, I believe that was just the beginning of the new life God has been calling me to. It was a time of preparation leading to Lent. It was as if I the Lord showed me a reflection of my soul in the mirror and told me, "This is who you are." Now, in contemplating that time of spiritual awakening, He has been slowly revealing to me, in bits and pieces, who He wants me to be. By spending more time with Him in prayer and before the Blessed Sacrament in Eucharistic Adoration, I am striving to become more like the person He wants me to be.

While reading the Lent/Easter issue of Faith and Family, I came across several new ideas for Lenten fasting this year. Here are some that are mentioned there along with a few ideas of my own:

Fast on shopping. Buy nothing but food and dire necessities that really cannot wait until after Easter. Toss those sale flyers and catalogs unopened into the trash. Use the money you save toward almsgiving or a fittingly glorious family celebration on Easter Day.

CCC: Read one of the four parts of the Catholic Catechism of the Catholic Church over the course of Lent. Part 4, on prayer, is only 74 pages. That's less than 2 pages per day.

Take the plunge. If you have held back from much inolvement in your parish up to now, resolve to join parish organization or activity during Lent.

Be a voice. Write one letter to the editor of your newspaper on a pro-life or other moral issue during Lent.

TV addict? Unplug the TV for one hour a day and spend that time in silence or in family prayer, reciting the rosary.

Time in church. Choose one extra devotion per week during Lent:
Stations of the Cross, Eucharistic Adoration, or a weekday Mass.

Lenten Sacrifice Beans --A wonderful way to help younger children remind them to do penance during Lent, lima beans in a jar record each Lenten sacrifice. On or about Ash Wednesday, dye the lima beans purple to be used as counters in a jar. Beans, because they are seeds which, if put in the ground, appear to die only to spring forth with new life. This is what Our Lord said we must do if we would have life in Him. He that seems to lose his life shall gain it. The beans remind us that daily death to self in one self-denial after another is the dying which will find for us new life in Him.

You can read the Holy Father's message for Lent 2006 here.

Lenten Radio Retreats

Our Sunday Visitor's Lenten Grace

Lent and Easter Resources.

Lent at EWTN

Lent: A Call to Conversion

Lenten Activities for Children

The Lenten Workshop

Roman Catholicism Lent Activities

Observing Lent with the Family

Season of Lent and Holy Week: On-line Resources

Meditations and Prayers for Lent and Easter

Catholic Pages Directory Lent

The Season of Lent

The University of Dayton -- Lent 2006

Praying Lent -- 2006

Catholic Encylopedia: Lent

Lenten Recipes from Catholic Mom

Meatless Meals

More Mealess Meals

Ukok's Place -- many Lenten links.

Comments

  1. I too love Lent. Ash Wednesday has always been one of my favorite days in the Church - I can't believe it's not a holy day of obligation. I've loved journeying on in this time to Easter and Holy Week, my favorite time in the year. Plus, it's a great time to revisit Confession

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  2. Yesterday, on Ash Wednesday, my parish church was full. I think Catholics feel that this is something that we as a Community are all involved in together. I can remember from the time I was in the primary grades going to Holy Mass on this day and receiving the ashes on my forehead.

    Although Ash Wednesday isn't a holy day of obligation, it is a universal day of fasting and abstinence.

    Here what James Akin has to say about it:

    Q: Is Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation, that is, a day on which we are required to go to Mass?

    A: No, it is not a holy day of obligation. However, it is strongly advisable since it is fitting to mark the beginning of penitential season of Lent by going to Mass. The formal, corporate worship of God is a good way to get a good start to the season. Also, even though it is not a holy day of obligation, it is a day of fast and abstinence.

    Q: Why isn't Ash Wednesday a holy day of obligation?

    A: Holy days of obligation are either commemorations of particular events (such as the birth of Christ or the presentation of Jesus in the Temple), particular people (such as Jesus' earthly father, St. Joseph), or important theological concepts (such as the Kingship of Christ). Ash Wednesday does not commemorate any event (nothing special happened forty days before the crucifixion -- at least not that we know of), and could only be said to indirectly commemorate a Person (Christ) since it is the beginning of preparation for the greater celebrations of Christ's saving work, which follow, and although Ash Wednesday is a day of penance (like all of the days of Lent except Sundays, which are feast days no matter when they occur in the liturgical calendar since they celebrate Christ's resurrection), the Church has never chosen to make it or any other specific day the definitive commemoration of the concept of repentance.

    God bless you,
    Jean

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  3. Not meaning to be critical here, but I've never see a person with such a well drawn cross on their forehead when they've gone to a Lenten service (like the picture here).

    Usually it looks like just a smudge. I attribute the smudge to the priest having a lot of people to mark and not having the time to be artistic.

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