WEDNESDAY REFLECTION
Mid-week Reflection
17th February 2021
Oh dear, the tough times start again today! Some people may scoff at the little penances we take upon ourselves during Lent. Do they matter? Do they affect our future lives? When I was about ten years old my Twin sister, told me that we would go off sugar in our tea for Lent. At first it was awful but by the time Easter came around, and we were permitted sugar again, we didn’t like it and neither of us has had sugar in our tea ever since. The following year, she told me that we would go off milk in our tea and…you’ve guessed it….neither of us has had milk in our tea ever since. So, our mortifications can affect our lives. In fact, hers went even further as, in due time, her husband and children followed suit. It might have been better if she had told me to go off sinning for Lent! But that’s the point of our self-imposed mortifications. They dispose us to something better, something finer, something greater. They teach us the value of self-discipline and unite us with the sufferings of Christ on the Cross. They prepare us for Easter and a desire to be open to the truths of our faith. The imposition of ashes, either by the cross on our foreheads or by sprinkling them on our heads, is accompanied by the words, “Remember you are dust and into dust you shall return.” Do you know the other occasion when a priest says those words? It’s when the earth is imposed upon our coffins! Mortification comes with the ashes. Mortality with the earth. As the late Bishop McGill once said to the students of the Pontifical Scots College in Rome…..”I wish you all a happy Lent!”
Monsignor Monaghan
