Lord God,
this Lent wash away all my doubts about your love for me, for others,
and for all creation,
that I may proclaim your goodness.
Teach me to become perfect as you are perfect,
in all my ways.
May I, with your help, come to see and love in others your own image and likeness,
especially in those I find difficult.
May my Lenten observance help me to enter into the dying and rising Jesus,
that I may experience and share with others your joy,
and rejoice with a new song in my heart together
with all your children.  

Amen. 

Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent & Easter

by Ron Rolheiser, OMI

[Jesus said,] “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to you Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Matthew 6:6)

“Too many of us need to see punishment befall the wicked. For those who feel that way, knowing that good shall have its day isn’t reward enough. No. The bad must also be punished.

All that worry that somebody might be getting away with something and all that anxiety that God might not be an exacting judge suggest that revenge-seekers, like the older brother in the Prodigal Son parable, might be doing a lot of things right but are missing something important inside themselves. They may be dutiful and moral but bitter underneath and unable to enter the circle of celebration and the dance. 

If we feel wounded and bitter, we’re apt to worry that God’s justice might be too lenient, with inadequate punishment accorded to the bad. The start of Lent on Ash Wednesday is a good time to give up that way of thinking forever. Doing so means less worry about God’s way and more about our own incapacity to forgive, to let go of our hurts, to take delight in life, to give others the gaze of admiration, to celebrate, and to join in the dance. For us to be fit for heaven, bitterness must go.
 

We may have never really felt in our hearts the true and gentle words that the Father spoke to the older brother of the Prodigal Son: “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again” (Luke 15:31-32). 

In ancient times, many people used ashes for religious, magical, and medical purposes. In the Old Testament, ashes were sprinkled on the head or over the whole body as a sign of mourning and penance.

Receiving ashes on the first day of Lent is a practice that dates back to the fifth century, and by the 11th century was a universal Christian practice. During the Reformation, most Protestant Churches eliminated the use of ashes. In recent years, however, many of these Church have resumed the practice of imposing ashes on Ash Wednesday.