The Holy Season of Lent Daily Reflections and Prayers

EWTN.com ^ | 02-24-04 | EWTN

[Salvation]

Click on the calendar's individual days here

[Salvation]

The three practices of Lent are

Praying

Fasting

Almsgiving

May this thread be a part of your family's daily prayer life during Lent.

[Salvation]

I know this is a day early, but I trust you will enjoy it during Lent.

Prayer Ping!

Please notify me via Freepmail if you would like to be added to or removed from the Prayer Ping list.

[Salvation]

ASH WEDNESDAY

" Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return."
                                                 Gn. 3:19

Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. (Joel 2:13)

Reflection.
The liturgical use of ashes originated in the Old Testament times. Ashes symbolized mourning, mortality and penance. In the Book of Esther, Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of King Ahasuerus to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire (Esther 4:1). Job repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). Prophesying the Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel wrote, "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes" (Daniel 9:3).
Jesus  made reference to ashes, "If the miracles worked in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in sackcloth and ashes long ago" (Matthew 11:21).
In the Middle Ages, the priest would bless the dying person with holy water, saying, "Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return."

The Church adapted the use of ashes to mark the beginning of the penitential season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and mourn for our sins. In our present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, we use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest blesses the ashes and imposes them on the foreheads of the faithful, making the sign of the cross and saying, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." As we begin this holy season of Lent in preparation for Easter, we must remember the significance of the ashes we have received: We mourn and do penance for our sins. We again convert our hearts to the Lord, who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation. We renew the promises made at our baptism, when we died to an old life and rose to a new life with Christ. Finally, mindful that the kingdom of this world passes away, we strive to live the kingdom of God now and look forward to its fulfillment in heaven.

Lenten Question
Q: What is Lent?
A: Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday). [This traditional ennumeration does not precisely coincide with the calendar according to the liturgical reform. In order to give special prominence to the Sacred Triduum (Mass of the Lord's Supper, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) the current calendar counts Lent as only from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday, up to the Mass of the Lord's Supper. Even so, Lenten practices are properly maintained up to the Easter Vigil, excluding Sundays, as before.]

Lenten Action.
Invite a non-practicing friend to Mass with you.

Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, you despise nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our brokenness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Ash Wednesday is a day of both fasting and abstinence.

[.45MAN]

Good morning to you. The calendar is great, thanks for the post.. Good Bless.

[old and tired]

Thank you for your daily posts. I don't always post to them, but I always read them.

During Lent, I limit my computer use to one hour a day, which includes emails to the grandchildren, so I will be around even less in the weeks to come.

[Salvation]

Thanks for the kind words.

One hour a day for the computer? Sounds like a good plan to me.

The Bible can be your daily companion!

[old and tired]

The Bible can be your daily companion!

As it should be.

[Salvation]

Thought for the Day

Help yourself during this troubled period by reading holy books. This reading provides excellent food for the soul and conduces to great progress along the path of perfection. By no means is it inferior to what we obtain through prayer and holy meditation. In prayer and meditation it is ourselves who speak to the Lord, while in holy reading it is God who speaks to us. Before beginning to read, raise your mind to the Lord and implore Him to guide your mind Himself, to speak to your heart and move your will.

 -- Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

[old and tired]

Help yourself during this troubled period by reading holy books

I'm not sure a Lent away from FR qualifies as "troubled times" but I'm sure reading more holy books will help me.

[T Minus Four]

Thank you for your daily posts. I don't always post to them, but I always read them.

I'd like to second that.

[Askel5]

I just combed through the periodical library at my grandmother's to pull some articles worth posting. She looks to be boxing up books as well so I'll be putting a bid in for anything she's jettisoning ... =)

Thanks for the thread, Salvation.

[Salvation]

I bet she has some wonderful books. Share with us what you find!

[Askel5]

You know ... I"ve been really remiss in the posting department. Got out of the habit of dual-posting such threads while banned from this place as a "Saddam Apologist".

As part of my Lenten "signal:noise" efforts, I'll be moving over here some of the gems I uncovered last year.

I'll be sure to ping you ... =)

[StAthanasiustheGreat]

ASH WEDNESDAY
Station—St. Sabina

Remember man that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return.
If there is any place in Rome where Lent, with its atmosphere of penitential solitude mixes with the reawakening of spring, then it must be along this path which climbs up from the Circus Maximus towards the Aventine, on the top of which stands the Church of St. Sabina.
In God's name then let us go up to the holy mount. Is it not significant that the first Lenten mystery is celebrated on a mount, the Aventine? Already in pre-Christian days this hill was an asylum for refugees, a post of security. To St. Sabina—a martyr, converted to the faith by the prayers, fasts and example of her Christian servant—we entrust ourselves today. To her we have recourse in our sinfulness. She will present her martyrdom and her prayers to God on our behalf and obtain His blessing upon our Christian warfare, so that "we may be converted to God with our whole heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning, and rend our hearts and not our garments, and turn to the Lord, our God."
Let us pray: Grant, O Lord, to Thy faithful people that they may begin the venerable solemnities of fasting with becoming piety, and may persevere to the end with steadfast devotion. Through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.

[Salvation]

First Day of the Holy Season of Lent bump!

[Salvation]

Thought for the Day

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.

 -- Genesis iii, 19

[COBOL2Java]

From today's Breviary for Ash Wednesday:

INTERCESSIONS
Today God our Father brings us to the beginning of Lent;
We pray that in this time of salvation he will fill us with the Holy Spirit, purify our hearts, and strengthen us in love. Let us humbly ask him:
Lord, give us your Holy Spirit.
May we be filled and satisified,
- by the word which you give us. (R.)
Teach us to be loving not only in great and exceptional moments,
- but above all in the ordinary events of daily life. (R.)
May we abstain from what we do not really need,
- and help our brothers and sisters in distress. (R.)
May we bear the wounds of your Son in our bodies,
- for through his body he gave us life. (R.)

Our Father...

[Coleus]

Lent? Why do I smell group aboslutions in the air?

[Bigg Red]

Excellent tool. Thank you.