Dear friends,
Today is the first Thursday of lent, we officially began this beautiful journey of Lent. This sacred pilgrimage of forty days is not merely a season on the calendar; it is a grace-filled invitation to draw nearer to Christ, to walk with Him into the desert, and to allow our hearts to be transformed.
And as we began this journey, the Church asks us to contemplate something we often avoid. Ashes will be placed upon our heads, and we will hear the solemn words:
“Remember you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”
So simple. So ancient. So unsettling.
Yet within those words lies not despair, but truth, and within truth, mercy.
Dust and Glory
To remember that we are dust is to remember our creatureliness. We are not self-made. We are not eternal by nature. We are formed by God, sustained by God, and destined for God.
“Dust” speaks of humility.
“Return” speaks of accountability.
But neither word is meant to crush the human spirit. Rather, they awaken us. For the same God who formed Adam from the dust also breathed into him the breath of life. We are dust, yes, but dust beloved by God.
Lent, therefore, is not a season of gloom. It is a season of clarity.
“Rend Your Hearts”
In the first reading, the prophet Joel cries out:
“Return to me with your whole heart… Rend your hearts, not your garments.”
The call is not to external performance, but to interior conversion.
To rend the heart is to tear open whatever has hardened within us:
Our complacency
Our hidden sins
Our quiet compromises
Our comfortable distance from God
The first grace of Lent is honesty.
To stand before God and say:
“I am a sinner. I fall. I wander. I fail. And yet… I am loved.”
Here lies the paradox of the Gospel:
We are unworthy, and still relentlessly loved.
And because we are loved, we are summoned into battle. Lent is not passive reflection. It is spiritual warfare. Like Christ in the desert, we confront temptation, illusion, and the subtle voice of the enemy.
Repentance is not weakness.
Repentance is courage.
Ambassadors of Christ
In the second reading from yesterday, Saint Paul speaks with urgency:
“We are ambassadors for Christ.”
An ambassador does not represent himself. He represents the one who sends him.
And we are sent by Christ.
This means our Lenten conversion is never private. Christianity is not “me and Jesus” in isolation. To belong to Christ is to become a visible sign of His presence in the world.
We are called to bring Jesus everywhere:
To the supermarket
To the workplace
To our families
To our conversations
To the hidden corners of ordinary life
People should be able to look at us, ashes or no ashes, and glimpse something different.
Not perfection.
But light.
Patience.
Charity.
Hope.
Lent asks:
How will I become more like Christ in these forty days?
Prayer: The Breath of the Soul
In the Gospel, Jesus gives us the timeless triad:
Pray. Fast. Give alms.
Prayer comes first because prayer is relationship.
Without prayer:
Hearts are not changed
Deserts are not crossed
Battles are not won
Even five minutes a day can become holy ground.
Five minutes of silence.
Five minutes of honesty.
Five minutes of listening.
Prayer is not informing God.
Prayer is allowing God to form us.
Fasting: Freedom Through Detachment
Jesus calls us to fast, not as punishment, but as liberation.
To fast is to say:
“I refuse to be ruled by my appetites.”
Yes, bodily fasting matters.
Yes, sacrifice matters.
Because a disciple is, by definition, a disciplined one.
And perhaps one of the greatest fasts in our age is this:
One hour a day, stay away from social media. Turn off the TV.
Place the phone in a drawer.
Do not touch it.
In that hour:
Read the Bible.
Reflect on the Word.
Pray
Be present to the people around you.
This fast exposes a deeper hunger, our addiction to noise, distraction, and self-importance.
“Who needs me?”
“What am I missing?”
But Lent asks a sharper question:
God… or the screen?
Almsgiving: Love Made Visible
Finally, Jesus calls us to give.
Almsgiving is love enacted.
It may be:
A donation
A meal shared
Time offered
Kindness extended
Compassion given
It need not be grand. It must be real.
For there is no such thing as “me and Jesus” alone.
It is always:
Jesus, others, and then me.
Love of God that does not become love of neighbor is incomplete.
The Danger of a Wasted Lent
We now begin these forty days.
We receive ashes.
We make resolutions.
We carry intentions.
But let us speak plainly.
If Easter arrives and nothing has changed ,
If our hearts remain closed ,
If our habits remain untouched ,
If our love remains unmoved ,
Then these forty days will have been a tragic waste.
Lent is too precious.
Grace is too costly.
Life is too brief.
The Church whispers today:
Stop.
Reflect.
Return.
Remember you are dust,
and unto dust you shall return.
But remember also:
Dust, redeemed by Christ, is destined not merely for the grave, but for resurrection.
God bless you.
BTYB Pal Ronnie
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