A Lenten Reflection
February 21, 2013
Today we begin our Lenten journey, a journey that lasts forty days and begins with us professing our faith through the symbol of a cross on our foreheads. And today I would like to share with you, one of my past Ash Wednesday experiences.
When I was in second grade, preparing for First Communion at St. Robert Bellarmine, we attended Mass regularly as a whole school, similar to today. On this Ash Wednesday in particular, my class was more attentive and understood the Mass better because it was only weeks before our very own First Communion. So Mass went on as most Masses do, and we all received our ashes. When we got back to school, our religion teacher explained to us in second grade simplicity what our ashes symbolized. They were a sign of our faith in Jesus on the cross and our promises to pray, sacrifice, and give to others during our Lenten season. As the day ended, my classmates and I shared our Lenten sacrifices and tried to top each other by giving up things that were considered "big" in the eyes of a second grader.
The next day, a few second graders still had remnants of ashes on their foreheads, a clear indicator that they had not taken a bath the day before. Luckily, the second grade sweat from gym class managed to wash away almost everyone’s day old ashes. But on Friday, one boy came to school with his ashes as dark the day we received them. This must have perplexed my second grade religion teacher because she raised her eyebrows and playfully asked Joe, who slicked his hair back every day, if he had looked in the mirror lately. My innocent friend proudly replied, "Why of course Sr. Ann! I slick my hair back every day." Trying not to insult Joe she built the courage to ask about the ashes still on his forehead. He smiled innocently and told her he traced the cross on his forehead every day with his dad’s cigar ashes because he wanted everyone to know he was proud to be Catholic. Sister Ann was taken aback; it took her several seconds to think of an answer but only smiled in that sneaky way teachers do and said, "I like your thinking".
This story didn’t all make sense to me while it was happening, but when I think back to it now, I know why that sneaky teacher smile was on this nun’s face. My classmate really understood the importance of professing our faith. Although we do not wear ashes on our foreheads each day, we can profess our faith in words and actions. These ashes are a reminder, almost a wakeup call for us, to evaluate our lives. Think of your actions in the past week. Have you been the best daughter, sister, friend, or student you could be? If not, this season of Lent calls us to repent and change. These next forty days are a practice run for the next year. These next forty days can transform our lives, if we let them. So today, as the first day of Lent, I challenge each of you to wake up and evaluate where you are this far.
When most people think of Lent, their initial response is to begin thinking of what they are going to give up. This is a legitimate thought, but Lent consists of three parts that go hand in hand.
The first part consists of prayer. Maybe you haven’t been listening to Morning Prayer or saying the Dominican blessing as wholeheartedly as you could be. Your Lenten goal could be to change that. Or you could stop in the Chapel for a quick moment of prayer during the school day. Yet another great form of prayer is the Mass, make it a habit to attend Mass regularly. These are just a few examples of how you can increase your prayer life, but don’t limit yourself! Try to find an area in your life that can be improved by the power of prayer.
The next counterpart of Lent is sacrifice. This is where the "giving up" things comes in to play. But actually, the word sacrifice comes from the Latin root which means "to make holy" so as you choose something to give up, remember, it’s supposed to help make you more holy!
The third and final counterpart of Lent is almsgiving. According to dictionary.com, almsgiving means: "making voluntary contributions to aid those in need." Some examples of almsgiving could be getting involved in our campus ministry service projects, donating your spare change to an organization, or bringing in canned goods during our food drive. Again, please do not limit yourselves!
Now that we have examined the three counterparts of Lent- prayer, sacrifice, and almsgiving, I want to challenge you to make this Lent the best it can be.
Strive daily to become a better version of yourself. We are constantly growing in knowledge, in faith, in relationships, in everything we do. Make it your Lenten goal to be the best you can possibly be in your daily activities. Be the best daughter, be the best student, be the best friend, be the best sister, be the best club member, be the best teammate. Strive to be the best person you can possibly be and make this a good Lent for yourself.