V.J.E.
Praised be Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament!
This Lent, we will be sharing reflections by our Sisters on Ash Wednesday and each of the Sundays of Lent. Our hope is that the fruit of our Sisters’ prayer may bless you as we journey through Lent seeking greater intimacy with Jesus each of the forty days.
This reflection on the Ash Wednesday readings is written by Sr. Katherine Joseph Marie Allensworth, HMSS .
An Outward Sign of an Interior Reality
I remember thinking on the first Ash Wednesday after receiving the white veil as a Novice, “what am I going to do if Father gets the ashes on my veil?”
After becoming a Novice, I was still learning the art of removing stains from my beautiful off-white habit and veil. The thought of getting black ashes out of the white veil was an intimidating prospect in those early days of stain removal training. Thanks be to God, no ashes got on the veil, but I ended up touching my forehead without thinking and the ashes ended up on the habit.
“Repent and believe in the Gospel.” “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
These are the words we hear when we receive ashes today. What strikes me is that with the placing of the ashes, we are not called to an external change, but invited into a conversion of our hearts. Often during Lent, there is the emphasis on the external doing like fasting from food or other things like bad habits, giving our time and resources to those in need, and setting aside more intentional time to pray. All these external realities, including the ashes on our forehead, are supposed to flow from a conversion of our hearts that impels us to do these external things. We can always do more for the sake of loving God and neighbor. But, I think God wants more of us than just more of what we can do.
As I prayed with the readings for Mass today, I was struck by St. Paul’s words to the Corinthians, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us”(2 Cor. 5:20). The ashes are the external sign of our ambassadorship; they mark us as people given to Christ. The ashes are a witness to Who we believe in. God is asking us to bring Him to a world in need of His love. Beyond receiving the ashes, I felt the Lord asking me in prayer, “Have you accepted the love My ambassadors are given?”
I have felt convicted that as I stand for Christ and live totally for Him, Lent can be a time of disciplining myself simply to receive His love for me in deeper places. To allow myself to be loved as I am today but loved by Him who wants me to be healed and brought into greater communion with Him. He wants to see those parts of my heart that are desperate for Him but are ashamed to come to Him. I think Lent is a time to be trained to know whatever happens around me or what I have done, my identity as Christ’s Beloved can never change. I am His! With that knowledge, I can go forth as He did; to proclaim the Good News, proclaim freedom to captives, heal the sick, and set the oppressed free (cf. Luke 4:18-19).
As I learned as a Novice to clean stains…if I am honest, I am still learning that art… I recognize there is always more “training” of my heart that God desires for me. As I try to keep my habits clean to reflect the beauty of the call to be consecrated to Him, I am asking to make my heart clean as well through the power of His love. My prayer is that as my heart continues to encounter the love of the One who called me, my witness to His love may shine forth.
I pray that this Lent may be a time for you to receive a new outpouring of His love in your life. May the God who has called you by name, chosen you for Himself, and loves you no matter what, fill you each day of these forty days with the knowledge that He wants all of you to be all for Him.
“Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.”
~Isaiah 43: 18-21