\nDear\nbrothers and sisters, today, first day of Lent, we have come here to\nacknowledge that we are sinners. We want to clean up our lives during\nLent. We want to leave sin behind and grow closer to the Lord. We\nwant a change of heart this Lent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe\nwords of the Lord through the prophet Joel in our first reading are\nwords that have special significance for us today as we begin this\nseason of Lent and are words that we can easily see the Lord speaking\nto us personally,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cYet\neven now, says the Lord,
\nreturn to me with your whole\nheart,
\nwith fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
\nRend your\nhearts, not your garments,
\nand return to the Lord, your God.
\nFor\ngracious and merciful is he,
\nslow to anger, rich in\nkindness,
\nand relenting in punishment.\u201d
\n(Joel 2:12-13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe\nwords of Paul in our second reading to the Corinthians are also very\nrelevant for us as we begin this season of Lent,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWe\nimplore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake\nhe made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become\nthe righteousness of God in him. (2 Cor 5:20-21)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn\nthe Scriptures when people left sin behind and turned over a new life\nthey used ashes to symbolize their repentance. Job said, \u201cI disown\nwhat I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.\u201d (Job 42:6) Daniel\n\u201cturned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting,\nsackcloth, and ashes.\u201d (Dan 9:3) Therefore in a spirit of\nrepentance we will take ashes on our foreheads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSometimes\npeople ask, \u201cWhat are you doing for Lent?\u201d There is one thing to\ngive up during Lent \u2013 our sin. This season of Lent is a preparation\nfor renewing our baptismal promises during the Easter Vigil on Holy\nSaturday night. Paul says, when writing to the Romans (6:3-6), that\nwhen we were baptized we died to our old way of life to live a new\nway of life i.e. when we were baptized we died to our old sinful\nways, we left sin behind. Therefore Paul says that when we were\nbaptized we went into the tomb with Jesus and rose out of the tomb\nagain with Jesus to a new life. The season of Lent is to give us time\nonce again to die to our old sinful ways and rise out of the tomb\nwith Jesus to a new way of life so that by the Easter Vigil on Holy\nSaturday night when we renew our baptismal vows we will also have\nrenewed our lives. That is why the First Preface of Lent says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nEach\nyear you give us this joyful season
\nwhen we prepare to celebrate\nthe paschal mystery
\nwith mind and heart renewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTo\nshow that we are serious about overcoming sin we do penance. Our\npenance during Lent as well as being a small attempt at reparation\nfor our sins is a symbol of the change of heart we want to achieve.\nIn the Gospel today (Matt 6:1-6, 16-18) Jesus spoke about prayer,\nfasting and giving alms. Since the early centuries these are three\npractices the Church has encouraged us to undertake during Lent as a\nform of penance: praying more, fasting and giving alms to the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nI\nwish you a holy season of Lent, a joyful season of Lent, a time in\nwhich you grow closer to the Lord and leave sin behind. The Lord\ncomes to us with a different grace in each season. May the grace God\ngive us during this season of Lent not be in vain. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear brothers and sisters, today, first day of Lent, we have come here to acknowledge that we are sinners. We want to clean up our lives during Lent. We want […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parish-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/5.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catholic.az\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}