FROM DUST YOU CAME AND FROM DUST FULL

Lord, I know there is darkness within me and around me. Who are in so much more suffering, than I amДЄs the brothers and sisters, You have placed in my life. Help me to focus my life today more outside myself. The clutter in my life to see You more clearly. May my small sacrifices in fasting be a way to clear away In the background of my day, today and all through Lent. I want to remember how much I need You in my life Purify our hearts and strengthen us in love. Today, we are invited to let the Holy Spirit We are re-born with Him to everlasting life. Remembering that in dying with Him in the waters of Baptism, Where we will renew the promises of our Baptism, To prepare ourselves to receive His light.ДЇor this is a journey to the Easter font, Our self-denial helps us, in the darkness that surrounds us, Our Lenten program is not an effort to save ourselves. It is why we fast today and abstain from meat. It is why we mark our heads with His cross. We want to enter into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus for us more fully. We begin our Lenten journey aware of where we are going. The ashes we use are the burnt palms from last yearвЂ™s celebration of Passion Sunday. In short, what the body is for the soul, generosity acts similarly for the fast: when the soul leaves the body it brings about death if generosity abandons the fast, it is, its death. What the sun is to the day, almsgiving is to our fast: the sunвЂ™s splendour increases the light of day, breaking through the dullness of the clouds almsgiving together with fasting sanctifies its holiness and, thanks to the light of goodness, dispels from our desires anything that could petrify.

FROM DUST YOU CAME AND FROM DUST FULL

As the oily fat sets the lamp alight and, in spite of so little to feed it, keeps it burning to our comfort all night long, so goodness makes our fasting shine вЂ“ it casts its beams until it reaches the full brightness of self-restraint. What oil is to the lamp, goodness is to our fast. Our fasting will be cold, our fasting will flag, if the fleece of almsgiving doesnвЂ™t clothe it, if the garment of compassion does not wrap it around.Д«rethren, what spring is for the land, mercy is for fasting вЂ“ the soft, spring winds cause all the buds on the plains to flower the mercy of our fast causes all our seeds to grow until they blossom and bear fruit for the heavenly harvest. For our fasting is a hungry one, our fasting is a thirsty one if it isnвЂ™t sustained by goodness and refreshed by mercy. So let us take our food and drink along in our boat, putting onto the chest the abundant mercy we shall need. My dear brethren, today we set out on the great Lenten journey. Remember you are Dust and Unto Dust you shall returnДЄsh Wednesday 6 March 2019 Saint Peter Chrysologus (400-450)Д«ishop of Ravenna, Father & Doctor of the ChurchД®xercises for Lent: Almsgiving, Prayer, Fasting

From dust you came and from dust