Reflection for Ash Wednesday – MT 6:1-6, 16-18
Prayer, almsgiving and fasting – these are what we call the tripod of Lenten Season. And as we begin these traditional Lenten practices with the ushering of the Ash Wednesday – the day when ashes are placed on our foreheads as a reminder of our human frailty, let us look into some practical suggestions on how we are to enrich our .
But first, as we usher into Lenten season, this is an opportunity for us to look into ourselves and see our own flaws and fragility, our brokenness and woundedness as we prepare ourselves to enter into the Paschal mysteries – the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ on which we celebrate during the Easter Triduum.
Prayer makes us enter into intimate and deep relationship with God. I recommend doing the daily Examen by St. Ignatius of Loyola as this provides a opportunity to speak to God in the most intimate and personal way. This will only take around 15-20 minutes a day to review our life and allow God to let speak in our daily review of our events in our life.
Fasting is a way for us to discipline and mortify our senses so that we can be purified of our inordinate attachments. Sometimes attachments can block our relationship with God and allowing him to speak to us in our life. Doing fasting can mortify us more to dwell into the discipline of tempering our senses. And that makes us more open and charitable to others.
And, finally, almsgiving is the fruit of prayer and fasting. We bring up to prayer our sacrifice and the fruit of it is charity. We are able to give up our own attachments to make ourselves available to others. We are able to give to others concretely through our almsgiving.
You may want to ask: why the need for these practices during Lent? Simple: the preparation makes us unite and appreciate the suffering of Christ who gave up Himself in the Cross for our salvation.
May our lives lead us down to Easter Road!
Meditations of a Wounded Soul 