Ash Wednesay, Lent

Rend your hearts, 
not your garments...
(Joel 2: 13)

With Ash Wednesday we begin a new season of the church year. We pray for and with one another as we enter into this time of preparation for Easter. Lent makes no sense without Easter. Easter is given its meaning by the reality of Lent: all is not well. The good news is that God WANTS all to be well, and will do anything to help us.

Lent is the time for us to look inward, to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to and honest with God. And in recognizing our need for God's help, the most difficult part may well be in accepting it.

In the Gospel for Ash Wednesday (Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18), Jesus is talking about prayer, fasting and almsgiving, or charity. Christians are called to practice these disciplines throughout our lives, but especially during Lent. But Jesus doesn't sound very supportive of them: go hide and pray, pretend you're happy when your stomach's growling and your head hurts, don't worry about getting your name on the donor wall. Jesus does say to DO these things, but make them a part of your ordinary, everyday life- not for show, recognition or even a tax write-off, but as the normal course of living as the people of God.

Have you ever driven out on a rural road and passed a farm where the field is on fire? The farmer is burning the stubble of the old crop down. There are at least two good reasons to do this: 1) it gets the leftover stuff out of the way so that when plowing time arrives, the process is easier and 2) the ashes from that stubble nourish the soil and replenish the nutrients that had been taken by the previous crop. Isn't this a bold action? What if a wind comes up and the fire gets out of control? The farmer surely knows what he or she is doing, and yet there is that element of vulnerability required in order to let that first spark find a place to land.

And so today we wear the ashes, reminded of our humble origins, our fragility, and our connectedness with all creation. The cross on our foreheads reminds us that death can lead to new life; that Jesus Christ is not only our savior whose name we bear, but also our model of how to live a healthy, holy life. We are marked as a community of faith, a holy people, those saved by Christ's death and resurrection and yet continually in need of conversion.

To prepare for the new fire of the Easter Vigil, to truly proclaim Christ as the light of the world and our lives, we have been given the gift of this season of Lent. May we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to be thankful for the blessings in our lives and to ask God's Spirit to transform us and bring us every closer to God so that in these ashes, we may find renewal.

Services for Ash Wednesday are at 6:30 and 9AM, Noon (not a Mass), 5:30 and 7:30pm

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Rend your hearts, 
not your garments...
(Joel 2: 13)

Today we begin a new season of the church year. We pray for and with one another as we enter into this time of preparation for Easter. Lent makes no sense without Easter. Easter is given its meaning by the reality of Lent: all is not well. The good news is that God WANTS all to be well, and will do anything to help us.

Lent is the time for us to look inward, to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to and honest with God. And in recognizing our need for God's help, the most difficult part may well be in accepting it.

In the Gospel today (Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18), Jesus is talking about prayer, fasting and almsgiving, or charity. Christians are called to practice these disciplines throughout our lives, but especially during Lent. But Jesus doesn't sound very supportive of them: go hide and pray, pretend you're happy when your stomach's growling and your head hurts, don't worry about getting your name on the donor wall. Jesus does say to DO these things, but make them a part of your ordinary, everyday life- not for show, recognition or even a tax write-off, but as the normal course of living as the people of God.

Have you ever driven out on a rural road and passed a farm where the field is on fire? The farmer is burning the stubble of the old crop down. There are at least two good reasons to do this: 1) it gets the leftover stuff out of the way so that when plowing time arrives, the process is easier and 2) the ashes from that stubble nourish the soil and replenish the nutrients that had been taken by the previous crop. Isn't this a bold action? What if a wind comes up and the fire gets out of control? The farmer surely knows what he or she is doing, and yet there is that element of vulnerability required in order to let that first spark find a place to land.

And so today we wear the ashes, reminded of our humble origins, our fragility, and our connectedness with all creation. The cross on our foreheads reminds us that death can lead to new life; that Jesus Christ is not only our savior whose name we bear, but also our model of how to live a healthy, holy life. We are marked as a community of faith, a holy people, those saved by Christ's death and resurrection and yet continually in need of conversion.

To prepare for the new fire of the Easter Vigil, to truly proclaim Christ as the light of the world and our lives, we have been given the gift of this season of Lent. May we allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to be thankful for the blessings in our lives and to ask God's Spirit to transform us and bring us every closer to Gd so that in these ashes, we may find renewal.

Ash Wednesday

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart 

(Joel 2:12)

We begin the season of Lent with a call to conversion.

Our song echoes our hopes and desires for this new life in Jesus Christ:

A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
(Psalm 51:12)

And we are marked with a cross of ashes, a double sign of our mortality,
with confident desire and expectation to share in the eternal life
promised by our God who can bring life
from the dust of the earth and from the depths of the grave.


While Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation, you are invited and encouraged to participate in Mass or a Liturgy of the Word service today.
The schedule at St. Andrew the Apostle is:
Mass: 6:30 and 9:00 AM, 5:30 and 7:30 PM
Liturgy of the Word with Distribution of Ashes: 12 Noon

Ash Wednesday is a Day of Fast and Abstinence: All Catholics are to refrain from eating meat (that includes chicken, but fish is okay) and (for those under 60 years) eat only one full meal, with no eating between meals. You may have two smaller meals that together equal one.

Lent begins next week!

Next Wednesday, February 17 is Ash Wednesday, the start of this six week retreat that helps us prepare for Easter. Wondering about ashes and fasting and when not to eat meat and all of that? You can click here for a wide Variety of Lenten Information.

Of course, more will be posted here as we journey together in the season.

While Ash Wednesday is NOT a Holy Day of Obligation, Catholic Churches are typically packed as many of us respond to that interior call to mark the beginning of something new (like making New Year's resolutions, in a sense). Here at St. Andrew, we'll have a lot of masses on February 17:
6:30 AM, 9:00 AM, 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM.
There will also be a Liturgy of the Word with Distribution of Ashes (i.e., no Holy Communion) at Noon that day. Anyone is welcome to receive ashes.