happy ash wednesday

Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the year. I love attending Mass and receiving ashes on my head. I love that Lent is a new beginning, a time to prepare my heart to receive the gift of Jesus' death and resurrection at Easter.

Lent provides forty days to examine my soul, my commitment to God, and to take intentional steps to fast from the activities, people, and things that distract me, that I spend too much time and energy on, instead of focusing on God. Lent isn't really about "giving up" something or denying ourselves pleasures because others don't have them; it's about making more space for God in our lives and drawing closer to Him.

Music is one of the ways I draw closer to God and one of my favorite hymns is sung on Ash Wednesday. It's about forgiveness, renewal, and offering ourselves - everything we are, the good and bad, successes and failures - to God.

ASHES
by Tom Conry

We rise again from ashes
from the good we've failed to do.
We rise again from ashes, 
to create ourselves anew.
If all our world is ashes,
then must our lives be true,
an offering of ashes, an offering to You.

We offer You our failures,
we offer You attempts.
The gifts not fully given,
the dreams not fully dreamt.
Give our stumblings direction,
give our visions wider view.
An offering of ashes, an offering to You.

Then rise again from ashes,
let healing come to pain,
though spring has turned to winter,
and sunshine into rain.
The rain we'll use for growing,
and create the world anew.
An offering of ashes, an offering to You.

Thanks be to the Father,
who made us like Himself.
Thanks be to the Son,
who saved us by His death.
Thanks be to the Spirit,
who creates the world anew.
An offering of ashes, an offering to You.

May God bless you and help you find ways to make room 

for and draw closer to Him during these forty days of Lent. 

Amen.