Ash Wednesday: Launch into Lent!
Marcel Dion
March 5th, 2025
Ash Wednesday is something of a spiritual "launchpad". It sets the tone and reminds us of the focus for the forty days that follow. It also launches us into that season of grace.
The challenge for many of us is that we are so familiar with this feast, having celebrated it for twenty, thirty, perhaps forty or more years, that we can slip into "auto pilot" mode, and not benefit fully from the grace available to us during this very special season.​
Do you feel ready to pray "outside the box" this Lent?
A few years back, as Linda and I were preparing for Lent, we were led to think as well as pray "outside the box", so to speak. Our desire then, as it is now, was to embrace a Lenten discipline that would result in a lasting change in our lives. Hopefully a transforming one! The accompanying video shares how we were being led, and briefly describes the adjustment we made in our Lenten observance. We've endeavoured to be guided by this principle ever since.
​
This year while keeping this same focus, we've decided to add a component; seeking for the grace to praise God and give Him thanks for everything as an expression of genuine faith and repentance.
To support you in that we're also including a free download to help you develop a substantial vocabulary of praise. The back panel has several choice quotations from the Catechism and Pope St John Paul II to ponder. ​​
Click on the Cross to listen and pray along!
Repentance of course, will always be integral to Lent. This new chant of Psalm 51 is an inspiring way to pray, and perhaps eventually commit to memory, this quintessential song/prayer of repentance.
​​
Psalm 51:15
Rescue me, O God my helper,
and my tongue shall ring out Your goodness.
O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth will declare Your praise​