The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Our Lady Cordemtrix, St. Joseph.
Our patron saints and guardian angels.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Well, we begin another season of Lent.
And Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation on joy of the gospel,
said that it seems today that many Christians seem to be always in a perpetual Lent.
You know, they don't seem to have any joy.
Well, we do have times in the liturgical season when we are to do like St. Paul says,
to live soberly and to reflect on certain things that the Bible says and Scripture says.
There's a time to mourn, and there's a time to rejoice.
So, Lent is a time in one aspect that we're to mourn.
Mourn our sins.
Mourn the sins of the world.
And the cause of so much misery in the world is due to the sin of our first parents.
So, it is a time to mourn in the church.
But it is not to be a mourning that is a gloomy period for the church.
Because, as you know, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross as we begin this.
We mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross as we begin this day and begin this season of Lent.
We mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross,
which is the positive sign of our redemption.
That we have been redeemed.
And what a great price.
I don't know if you remember the old show, Branded.
But in one sense, we've all been branded.
We've been marked with the sign of the cross by Christ.
And it is truly a sign of...
a sign of great rejoicing that our Lord has come and offered his life for us.
That we have been purchased.
And so we mark ourselves with the sign of the cross to remind us of this great gift that we have received.
That should be the motivating factor for us in beginning Lent is that we want to take up our cross and follow after Christ.
But we mark ourselves not with something precious, but with ashes to remind us that we are dust, as we will hear shortly.
And to dust we shall return.
That we have to remember our humble origins if we don't want to end up like our first parents and fall due to pride.
And that we must always remember in certain sense that our repentance will only be truly effective,
if it is motivated out of true humility and out of a sense of gratitude and love for Christ.
As I read something before this day began, the whole purpose of our penance is to help us to draw closer to God.
You know, and if our penance isn't helping us to draw closer to God,
or if we are doing penance without a sense of...
Why we should be doing it.
And that is to help us to turn away from sin and turn back to God.
For that is the definition of sin.
Sin is turning away from God and turning towards creatures.
Putting them above God, whether they be a person, place, or thing.
And repentance, which is really the theme of Lent, is to repent, the first part of Lent.
Is to turn away from creatures and back to God.
It says in scripture that we should resist the devil and he will take flight.
Draw close to God and he will draw close to you.
And it is always a reminder to us that many times we kind of wander away or we drift away
just because sometimes of human frailty.
And we need to redirect our attention.
We need to get back.
We need to get back on track.
To once again, you know, get back into the footsteps of following Christ.
Who, as we know, is leading us in this act of self-denial.
He is the model who denied himself the glories of heaven in becoming man
so that by that act of self-denial
we could enjoy the glory of heaven through his self-sacrifice and great love for us.
And so we begin this season of Lent with this main purpose.
Is to draw close to God.
To become more intimate with him.
So that's why the church recommends three things to help us during the season of Lent.
To do that.
First and foremost, to pray.
To speak to God.
To speak to God from the heart.
To speak to him about whatever it is that we need to repent of
or whatever we need to be reconciled with.
And to also to just grow in greater love for him.
We need to take that time.
And then, of course, to do the penance.
To deny ourselves.
To show that we are willing to endure some kind of pain or violence done to ourselves
and to our will.
So that we can show that we love God more than whatever it is that we maybe are attached to too much.
Whether it be our iPad or some particular food or whatever it may be.
It's a way of, as I said earlier, to get rid of the false gods.
And to make sure that God is truly our my God and my all.
Like our Holy Father St. Francis said.
And then the almsgiving.
Charity.
Works of charity.
To reach out to our neighbor.
And to do good to others.
To come out of ourselves.
As Pope Francis said.
It was one of the biggest problems of modern man.
Is this individualism.
This self-absorption.
That we need to get out of ourselves.
And to look to our neighbor.
Whether it be giving in alms.
Or whether it means to go and do one of the corporal or spiritual works of mercy.
Lent is really a time to maybe focus in more.
On the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
To pray for the dead.
To go visit the shut-ins.
To give food to the hungry.
To shelter to the homeless.
Whatever it may be.
And to even at some times of course.
The spiritual works.
To admonish the sinner.
Maybe there's someone that we need to go and speak to in fraternal correction.
And to say.
Hey turn around.
You're going in the wrong direction.
And when done in that kind of way.
I think with a sense of love for them.
Maybe this is of course the season of Lent.
Is the season where we really think about conversion.
Not only ours.
But especially ours.
But also our brothers and sisters.
And so that's why Saint Paul says.
We are ambassadors for Christ.
Going out today with ashes on our forehead.
Our forehead is not supposed to be something that we should gloat about.
But it should be really something that.
If someone sees it.
It may be a sign to them.
Hey this is Lent begun.
And it might be a grace for them.
To think about their own past.
Or their lives.
And to see if they need to repent as well.
These are all little sacramentals that may help.
It's not to be like some people.
Who only go to church on Ash Wednesday.
To get ashes.
So that everybody will think that they're a Christian.
At least one day out of the year.
It should be something that marks us on our forehead.
But truly we should be marked interiorly.
With the cross.
And think about the events that we are leading up to.
On Holy Week.
To think about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And whether I have taken up my cross.
And followed him.
The famous saint.
And martyr Saint Edith Stein.
Said that in her book on the knowledge or science of the cross.
That the gospel can be summed up in that one thing.
Knowledge of the cross.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And our cross.
Are we taking our cross up.
And following after him.
And that is really the essence of the gospel.
That we are filled with joy.
Because of what Jesus has done for us.
And we're also.
Know that we must be involved in the work of.
Our own redemption by cooperating.
And taking our cross and following him.
So.
The morning should be done privately.
You might say.
The morning as Saint Francis told his brothers.
If you want to mourn for your sins.
Do it in your room.
But when you come out.
And with the rest of the brothers.
He always told them.
You know you should be joyful.
You should be.
An encouragement to those around you.
So today as we.
Wear the sign of ashes on our forehead.
We want to be an ambassador of Christ.
Bringing others the joy of the gospel.
To know that yes.
There is a man on the cross.
That Jesus died for us.
And that we are so blessed.
To be able to unite our sufferings.
And even voluntary.
Self-denial with that.
For the salvation of our soul.
And the salvation of others.
In the name of the Father.
And of the Son.
And of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
THANKS A LOT