Thus begins the holy season of Lent – with ashes and a reminder that we are dust, and will return to dust after our death.
Remember! You are nothing but dust! It is a call to Humility, the root of all virtue. Remember! You will return to dust! You will be nothing but dust once you die! Humility.
Too often has man tried to set himself up as something eternal, to replace God. Too many still do the same. Nothing will be left of us after this life, indeed even now we are nothing but dust to be blown to the winds of history. Be humble!
Simultaneously the sign of the Cross of Ashes on our heads is a reminder of the fact that we will die, and die twice unless we act on the warning.
It is carried on our foreheads for a few brief hours; we need to willingly carry it in our hearts for a lifetime. We have the ashes placed on our heads; We need to burn a cross onto our soul.
This Lent, pray for the Humility to better understand your worth without God. Aspire to repay the immeasurable debt of your soul, sacrifice for those who will not, do penance for yourself and all other sinners.
Forty days – but a short time truly, and we will be celebrating the victory of the Risen Christ. Lent and Easter are a little taste of the life now and in eternity – but a short life and then when all is finished, if we have journeyed, lived, suffered, and tasted death and the grave with Christ, we will rise in triumph over Death to live in perfect communion with our God for the everlasting day of Paradise.
As you travel this little time, pause for reflection, look down the road and determine your route – Far, far forever into the unknowable stretches of timeless existence, there are two ends, and one way to each: Calvary to climb, or the easy and dreadful leap into the cracks of Hades.
How are you going to use your Lent?
The Knight of the White Rose - Conquest and Surrender of Two Hearts 