Well, it's Day #2 of the Season of Lent 2014 and here are some pure thoughts I have been pondering:
General Thoughts:
Lent mirrors the 40-day period of fasting that Jesus modeled and we read about in Matthew's Gospel account. Some Lent observers choose to have ash placed on their foreheads as the Season of Lent commences on Ash Wednesday. The ashes that are traditionally used are created by the burning of palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations. As the ashes are applied, the shape of the cross is re-enacted as the words from Genesis 3:19 are spoken: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Devotional Thoughts:
Lent is the opportunity to change what we ought to change but have not... Lent is about becoming, doing and changing whatever it is that is blocking the fullness of life in us right now... Lent is a summons to live anew... Lent is the time to let life in again, to rebuild the worlds we've allowed to go sterile, to "fast and weep and mourn" for the goods we've foregone. If our own lives are not to die from lack of nourishment, we must sacrifice the pride or the sloth or the listlessness that blocks us from beginning again. Then, as Joel 2:12-18 promises, God will have pity on us and pour into our hearts the life we know down deep that we are lacking.
-- Joan Chittister, Catholic Nun
Grateful
