Wednesday 5 March 2025
Ash Wednesday | Day of fast and abstinence
Joel 2:12-18. Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned – Ps 50(51):3-6, 12-14, 17. 2 Corinthians 5:20 – 6:2. Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.
A time of humility and self-reflection
Today’s Gospel doesn’t sit well in an age of social media: ‘Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that other people may see them’. What sort of social media strategy is that for a Catholic social service organisation?
However, Ash Wednesday, and Lent, don’t tend to sit well with any age. They’re about humility and self-reflection. They’re about facing our worst selves and considering how we might become better. This work is, as the reading suggest, best done between ourselves and God. Only then, perhaps, might be feel free to be honest.
As we begin Lent, we pray that we might find the courage to face God and ourselves in truth, and the humility to see where we might become more like the person God wants us to be.
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