Lent is a very special time for Catholics as the church invites us to the new life of Easter. This new life entails journeying into the mercy and compassion of Jesus, recognising our sinfulness, and through reconciliation, fasting and charity. We strive to enter into a new way of believing, seeing and action as people. This new life we are invited to experience is found in the Risen Jesus.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday with its tradition of being signed with ashes. This tradition of ashes can be traced back to the ancient Jewish action of taking on ash as a sign of mourning and repentance for wrongful actions, a public declaration of our acknowledgement of wrong and a commitment to turn our lives around. Ash Wednesday still remains this public declaration and even though the sign of ashes may disappear from our foreheads, this sense of the need for repentance and healing continues through the Lenten time.
It is through the sacrifice, death and resurrection of Jesus that we are saved, healed and given new life.
His grace is free for the asking, in him we become new people.
May this Lenten journey of 2020 bring us to a new way of believing, seeing, loving and living.