ASH WEDNESDAY – 2011

Ash Wednesday – 2011.

Lent – the season of Lent – the 40 Days of Lent – this year later than usual. Hopefully this means - Easter – April 24th – will be warm – very Spring like – with flowers – gardens – Annapolis in full bloom – ladies with big Easter bonnets – our lives better that day than this day.

Ash Wednesday – 2011.

Lent – the season of Lent – 40 Days to become a bit – a good bit more serious – to see where we have to spring – to walk into the garden of our soul – to walk around inside ourselves and see the earth we come from calling for cultivation – digging – raking and planting – and watering – so by Easter – April 24th – we’ll look like a garden of paradise – filled with new life – Resurrection for all.

Ash Wednesday – 2011.


Lent – the season that starts with ashes rubbed into our thick skulls. “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.” The reminder that all stuff gets old – ages – cracks and crumbles. Colors fade. Flowers wilt. Cars get scratched and dented. Tires wear. The odometer numbers increase. We age. Our skins wrinkle or as old lady told me the other day, “My wrinkles now have wrinkles.” The reminder that there is end date on our tombstone. We have a shelf life.

Ash Wednesday – 2011.

Lent – the season of Lent – the reminder as we heard in today’s gospel that there is more to us than meets the eye. There is an inner space, an inner room, inside us – behind the door of our forehead - where the ashes are about to be put. There’s an inner room inside us. Today Christians are asked to stop at that inner door. What does the door look like? Have we lost the key? When was the last time we were on the other side of that door? When was the last time we cleaned our inner room? Are the two chairs in there dusty – or clean? When was the last time we sat in there by ourselves? When was the last time we heard Jesus knock on that door? When was the last time we prayed to Our Father inside? I have a theory: “Show me the trunk of your car and I’ll tell you who you are.” It’s the same with our inner room, “Show me your inner room and I’ll tell you who you are.” We come inside the doors of this church as a reminder to come inside the doors of our inner room. In Lent people clean that inner room. They go to confession. Check our bulletin for our regular times of confession or the special Confessions for Lent – the Wednesday evening, “The Light is On Program” – all through this Lent.

Ash Wednesday – 2011.

Lent – the season of Lent – the reminder that Lent is connected to the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert – before he sprang into action with his new life. The 40 days when we go within and ask ourselves, “What is my biggest temptation?” Or, “What are my three temptations?” – as we’ll hear about this Sunday. What are my inner sounds? When alone in the desert, or my inner room, or alone in my car, or in my moments in the night when alone when I have trouble sleeping – what are my voices – gossip, anger, regrets, resentments, regurgitations from the past? What are my sounds? Do I ever listen to myself? Do I ever sit alone with a good book – or some good music – or the scriptures – or a prayer book – perhaps the prayer book of a parent long gone – a prayer book that gets me in touch with them and myself and 3 great issues like faith, hope and charity.

Ash Wednesday – 2011.

Lent – the season of Lent – the time to get in touch with some of this – to ponder the call and the challenge of the next 40 days: to fast not just from food – but from envy and anger, laziness and being just a lump – to pray – not just babble, babble words, but to have real conversations with God and each other – to be kind and charitable to each other – especially with those who drive us crazy.

Ash Wednesday – 2011

Lent – the season of Lent – a time to hear the words from today’s second reading: "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Amen. Amen. Amen.