Friday after Ash Wednesday

Today’s readings

Sometimes people say they aren’t giving up something for Lent, they’re just going to try to do “something positive.” I think that’s a little permissively vague, to be honest. I usually tell people it doesn’t just have to be one or the other. In fact, the Church teaches that it shouldn’t just be one or the other. Today’s Liturgy of the Word makes it clear that it very definitely should be both.

Fasting is important because it helps us to see how blessed we are. It is important because it helps us to realize that there is nothing that we hunger for that God can’t provide. Fasting teaches us, once again, that God is God and we are not. This is important for all of us independent-minded modern-day Americans. We like to be in charge, in control, and the fact is that whatever control we do have is an illusion. God is in control of all things, even when it seems like we are in chaos. Fasting teaches us that we can do without the things we’ve given up, and that God can provide for us in much richer ways. So, as I preached on Wednesday, we have to give up something meaningful, perhaps harmful attitudes, or treating the people in our lives badly. Fasting is absolutely essential to having an inspiring, life-changing Lent, and I absolutely think that people should give things up for Lent.

But giving something up for Lent does not excuse us from the obligation to love our neighbor. This falls under the general heading of almsgiving, and along with fasting and prayer, it is one of the traditional ways of preparing our hearts for Easter during Lent. We might be more mindful of the poor, contributing to a food pantry or a homeless shelter or relief organization. But perhaps more meaningfully, we might reach out by serving in some capacity, like volunteering at a food pantry, or helping out at a shelter. We also might give the people closest to us in our lives a larger portion of the love that has been God’s gift to us, in some tangible way. Today’s first reading reminds us that fasting to put on a big show is a sham. Fasting to bring ourselves closer to God includes the obligation of almsgiving and prayer. Together, these three facets of discipleship make us stronger Christians and give us a greater share of the grace that is promised to the sons and daughters of God.

Pope Leo’s Dilexi Te Favors Social Action Over Spiritual Mission

https://epistles.online/2025/10/10/pope_leo_dilexi_te_emphasizes_social_action_not_church_spiritual_mission/

Quote of the day, 21 September: St. Titus Brandsma

Without poverty, a religious is a Pharisee, a gentleman of ease pretending to be a poor man. It is like someone who wants only the finer things of life disguising himself in the clothing of the poor. When religious are overly attached to unnecessary possessions or are always looking for luxuries, then we appear ridiculous before the Lord who received our vows.

Whenever someone comes seeking alms, give whatever you can. Giving alms is our way of life. It is the alms we receive that provide for our needs, and with our own alms, we must provide for those in need.  Whatever we give to the poor we give to God.

Saint Titus Brandsma

Chapter VI, Seeking God

Arribas O.Carm., M 2021, The Price of Truth: Titus Brandsma, Carmelite, Carmelite Media, Darien, Illinois.

Featured image: The United States nonprofit organization Feed My Starving Children visited Nicaragua in March 2011. To date, the Ortega regime has revoked the non-profit status of over 5000 non-governmental, non-profit organizations, including those funded by the Catholic Church who partnered with Feed My Starving Children. Since 2018, Catholic schools and universities have been seized, diocesan bank accounts have been frozen, religious congregations have been expelled, and their property confiscated. Yet the poor who relied on their assistance remain in Nicaragua. Image credit: Feed My Starving Children / Flickr (Some rights reserved).

#almsgiving #attachment #needy #poverty #religiousLife #StTitusBrandsma

#Repentance #SaintJohnChrysostom #EndSin #GodsMercy #DivineGrace #Prayer #Almsgiving #Humility #ChristianFaith #Salvation #GospelMessage #InnerConversion #PathToGod #AtonementForSins #Confession #Reconciliation #Forgiveness #Catholic #DoctorOfTheChurch #Sacraments #Conversion

http://epistles.online/2025/08/19/five-paths-of-repentance-by-saint-john-chrysostom/

Ash Wednesday

Where do you see yourself in forty days?

I’m sure many of us have had to answer some version of that annoying question when applying for a job. You know: “Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?” But I ask that question today because I think we have to decide what getting ashes on our foreheads today means for us. If it’s just to check a box, or avoid the question “I thought you were Catholic?” at work, or to prove to Mom that we made it to Church, then we’ve missed an opportunity. Ash Wednesday is the busiest day at any Catholic Church hands down: busier than Christmas, and busier than Easter. And it’s really good that we are here today to mark the beginning of Lent, but seriously, where do you see yourself in forty days?

The hope is that today we get reminded that we are dust, and to dust we shall return; and warned that we need to repent and believe in the Gospel. Then we take those admonitions and unpack them for forty days by engaging in fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, so as to rise on Easter Morning, greeted by the Morning Star that never sets, a new creation that has died and risen with our Risen Lord. That’s where we need to see ourselves in forty days.

They (whoever “they” are!) say that it takes 21 days to start a new habit. So in forty days, we should be able to really accomplish something important. So if we find ourselves right now looking for a better relationship with God, a better relationship with the people in our lives, or wanting to be happier, more positive people, then the traditional Lenten disciplines of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, if we really engage them, can make a huge difference in our spiritual lives, and in our lives in general.

Maybe this year we will fast from spending so much time on social media, or on our phones or tablets in general, and really take an interest in the people in our lives. Maybe we will fast from the negative influences in our lives, whether that be news or media in general, or relationships with people that drag us down. Maybe we will fast from negativity, and choose to look at people differently, asking God to give us the grace to see them as he does.

In almsgiving, maybe we will take the time to really give of ourselves. Yes, we can write the check to help any number of charities, but maybe we can also make a meal or even just a dessert for a lonely neighbor or relative. Maybe we will give alms by making time with our family a priority. Or maybe we will even volunteer to mentor someone in need, or to assist in faith formation here at church.

For prayer, maybe this isn’t the only time we do daily Mass during these forty days of Lent. Perhaps even just a day or two a week before work or whatever the day’s agenda may be. Or, we could visit the adoration chapel for fifteen minutes once or twice a week. Or, maybe we try a new devotion like a daily Rosary or reading a few paragraphs of the Gospel of Luke every day.

Forty days of some combination of that can really affect our relationship with God and our relationships with the people in our lives in an amazingly positive way. And doing this, we don’t blow the trumpet and say, “Hey, look at what good things I’m doing!” No, we do it unassumingly and note with joy the changes it makes in our demeanor.

I hope this Lent is incredibly powerful for every one of us; that it makes our Easter Morning all the more joyous; and that it changes us in ways that will make our lives better for years to come.

Where do you see yourself in forty days?

#almsgiving #AshWednesday #Fasting #Prayer

JC Ryle, evangelical Anglican, writes on medicine. He says some Greeks of the antiquities advanced medicine. But a systematic care for the sick and high esteem of doctors took off with advent of Christianity.

Today, don’t many cultural flash points position Xians on the side against health care systems? What has changed? How is Ryle called an “evangelical”?

What can you do for the sick today?

#christian #waronpoverty #workforjustice #ngo #almsgiving