Here are some great images of Ash Wednesday at Saint Mary Cathedral in Lansing upon a day when tens of thousands of people across the Diocese of Lansing turned out to attend Holy Mass and receive their ashes.
"We too are proclaiming a time of giving alms, a focus on deepening prayer, and a period of fasting. We do this in this great assembly, in this Body of Christ, in this Church of God," said Bishop Earl Boyea in his Ash Wednesday homily, February 14.
"Let the cross we bear on our foreheads speak truly of the cross of Christ which we bear in our hearts and minds and souls."
What is Lent? Well, according to the Gospels of Saint Matthew, Saint Mark and Saint Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by Satan. Lent originated as a mirroring of this: Praying, fasting and giving alms in preparation for the great Solemnity of Easter Sunday.
“Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. Let no one try to separate them; they cannot be separated. If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing,” wrote Saint Peter Chrysologus in the 5th Century, “Prayer knocks at the door, fasting obtains, mercy receives.”
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of blessing ashes made from palm branches blessed on the previous year's Palm Sunday, and placing them on the heads of penitents to the accompaniment of the words “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
* Bishop Earl Boyea's homily upon Ash Wednesday, February 14, 2024. Readings: Joel 2:12-18; II Cor 5:20-6:2; Mt 6: 1-6, 16-18
Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting; these are the activities which engage us this Lent. Jesus treats all three of these in the same way indicating that they must be done solely to please God alone. These should all be means for our reconciliation to God, that is, for a real change of heart. Without this focus on our changing, without our desire to be reconciled, without our looking to God alone, our almsgiving just becomes a dropping of a buck, our prayer just becomes words, and our fasting just becomes a diet.
The Prophet Joel spoke to the people of his day in the midst of a great plague of locusts which had destroyed the harvest. He too links up fasting with mourning and weeping, with rending our hearts, with returning to God. He clearly sees a great value in fasting, as long as it involves a reconciliation to God.
It is in that context that he shouts: “Blow the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast…call an assembly.” That is what we are doing here today, my sisters and brothers. We too are proclaiming a time of giving alms, a focus on deepening prayer, and a period of fasting. We do this in this great assembly, in this Body of Christ, in this Church of God. Let the cross we bear on our foreheads speak truly of the cross of Christ which we bear in our hearts and minds and souls. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” Now, indeed, is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. Then, we can shout with Joel, let that trumpet blow!
God bless you all.
