When I worked at LSU we rented an outdoor theater on Ash Wednesday to accomodate the hundreds of students wanting ashes. The opening song was always “Dust in the Wind.” The song captured the usual way we think of Lent — our own fragile nature and the need to reform. Interestingly, in the gospel setting the tone for Lent Jesus proposed three practices for the season: almsgiving, prayer, fasting. We ordinarily reverse that order and focus on the fasting which is about ourselves. “What are you giving up?” Jesus puts priority on almsgiving as a reminder we need to get over ourselves and think about others. Only then will our prayer, our relationship with God, be genuine as we stop trying to satisfy ourselves by fasting.
MARCH22022
By Church Staff
