Hello Friend!!! Welcome you to this Powerful Ash Wednesday Reflection – 22nd February 2023. I am very happy to see you coming to read this reflection. Today’s readings.
Table of Contents
Readings of the Day
| First Reading | JOEL 2. 12-18 |
| Second Reading | 2 COR 5.20 – 6.2 |
| Gospel Reading | MATTHEW 6. 1-6, 16-18 |
Focus of the Today
Reflect, Repent, convert, and live rightly! This is a constant invitation for us. Blessed are they who hearken to this call for a worthwhile life and live accordingly!
Inspiring Catholic Reflection for the Day
1. Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday, a very unique day whereby we step into a new liturgical season. It is the holy season of Lent. Lent is very special in the life of the church and of many Christians. Not that the other seasons are not important. But lent makes a difference because of its very nature and the process and the purpose.
2. Lent addresses directly our human fragility. It lays bare before us our vulnerability that is prone to fall. It reminds us of our basic transience. Ashes with which we are smeared today indicate this sense of earthly nothingness, perishability, and impermanence. This sense is quite explicit in the pronouncement, “From dust, you have come and unto dust, you shall return”.
3. Thereby the holy lent urges us to focus our attention on our sinfulness that fails us in faith and charity. In lent, there is a focused concern with sin and evil. But the purpose is not to feel guilty, melancholic, and discouraged. The purpose is essentially positive. It is to repent and return to the Lord.
4. That is why in the first reading, God summons us through prophet Joel, “Rend your hearts and not your garments; return to me with all your heart”. In the second reading, in his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul exhorts, “Be reconciled to God… so that we might become the righteousness of God”.
5. How to tread this journey of repentance and conversion? In the gospel, Jesus takes our attention to the three fundamental means of our whole Christian living and growth. These are in fact the three Jewish pilastric practices. They are namely prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Jesus cautions us against hypocrisy in practising them. It is not to make a show or display one’s religiosity.
6. All these should be done in a spirit of humility, and right intention. The purpose is to grow righteous in the sight of God and toward others. Accordingly, our prayers must help us to draw closer to God. Our fasting must help us to be more self-disciplined. Our almsgiving must deepen our sensitivity and fraternal responsibility and charity.
Direction For Life
Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. God will certainly listen to us and help us. For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; He will relent over disaster. He will reward you
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Note
Hope you had a good experience reading the catholic reflection for the day. With another inspiring message we shall meet in the next post. Stay Tuned in Biblemsg.com Thank You.
