It's Ash Wednesday....

Many years ago, we were blessed to have a priest from Africa come stay at our home church.  He was attending Cornell for graduate studies and helped out for many years at our church.

Throughout those years, we formed a close bond with this man...he became a good friend as well as a gifted priest.  After his studies were completed, he returned to his native Africa, founded a school for children and is now helping the people of his country to rise above their poverty, by teaching them how to market their skills and earn a living.  In addition to this, he has spear-headed efforts to bring clean drinking water, by way of wells, to his people.

He is truly a holy man....made to serve his people.  He returns to the United States a couple of times a year to meet with his various boards, one of which is CorAfrica (see the link below), who carry on fundraising and awareness efforts here in the States.

Today our friend, Father Peter, posted this Lenten reflection, and I felt called to share it's message with you....whether you are Catholic, Protestant or non-denominational, it may give you pause to reflect on what Lent is, and maybe help you to grow in your faith.

GIVE IT UP
We think of Lent as a time for giving up and it is true: “Giving up” begins with “giving.” Give something of yourself to someone else.
Begin by giving joy.
And if you truly want to give up something, don’t just settle for smokes or beer or starchy food – though you'd like to lose that weight.
Go further. Go deeper. Try giving up something really hard.
Give up cynicism. Or jealousy. Or backstabbing.
Give up gossip. Give up regrets for choices you never made or paths your never took. Give up fighting God’s will for you. Give up always forgetting that the most famous prayer in the world doesn’t include the phrase “My will be done,” but “thy will be done.”
Need help? Try this: give up whatever fear or anxiety is keeping you from going to confession, and just go.
Give up being too busy to pray, or being too worried to hope.
There is no better time for doing that than now. As the scripture tells us today: “Now is an acceptable time.”
The point of all this isn’t just to make others feel better – or make ourselves feel holy. It’s to draw us closer to The One who makes everything, including our redemption, possible. And we do it now for good reason. Lent forces us to admit something we prefer to ignore: we don’t have forever. So, throughout the day, look in the mirror. You’ll see reflected back this inconvenient truth: we are dust. We have been marked. The clock is ticking. And there is work to do.
It begins here, and now. And it will take the rest of our lives to do. But nothing is more important. It is the great work of our salvation. The journey of Lent is one more leg on our journey back to the Father — a journey of struggle, and sacrifice.
But a journey, ultimately, of joy.
As you “remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return,” remember that, too.
And as we embark on that journey, and begin this 40 day adventure, remember one more thing.
Be patient. With yourselves. And with everyone else.
Because God isn’t finished with any of us yet.

Have a lovely day.