BLESSED ASH WEDNESDAY!

QUESTION?

Does God Takes 40 Days to Prepare People for His Purposes?

ANSWER!

Lent is a time for Catholics to live out their faith more intensely with a vision to access God’s power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigils to end abortion & other evils in America. Lent is a time for the body of Christ to come together around the world in a spirit of unity with the purpose of repentance, conversion and to seek God’s favor to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life.

God has used the period of 40 days throughout history to bring about major transformation…

Noah experienced transformation during 40 days of rain (Genesis 7:4-18).

Moses was transformed by 40 days of prayer on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18 & 34:28).

David was transformed by Goliath’s 40 days of challenging the Israelites to fight (1 Samuel 17:16-36).

Elijah was transformed when God gave him food & drink to strengthen him to walk for 40 days to Mt Sinai (1 Kings 19:5-8).

Jonah transformed a wicked city Ninevah (in Assyria)  when he preached that the Lord was giving them 40 days to repent & be faithful (Jonah 3).

Jesus was transformed and empowered by 40 days of prayer in the dessert (Matt 4:1-11).

The Disciples were transformed after spending 40 days with Jesus following His resurrection (Acts 1:3-9).

Whether the penance is voluntary or imposed by life circumstance, it does help us prepare for the rejoicing of Easter Sunday. By experiencing our mortality, we learn that we, like our Savior, must pass through death. On a monastery in Italy is carved the words, “The darker the night, the more brightly shine the stars.” Ash Wednesday is the yearly entrance to that dark night of Lent and it prepares us for the brightness of Easter. In more recent years, the ministers are allowed the option of placing the ashes on the penitent with the phrase, “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). This is a noble phrase, indeed. But I think that most of us who receive the ashes will be thinking of the words that have reverberated throughout the centuries: “Remember, man, you are dust, and to dust you will return” (cf. Genesis 3:19).

* If you pray well you will live well, if you live well you will die well, if you die well all will be well" (St Augustine).