20 THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY Remember that you are in the presence of the Lord: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The ashes we were marked with yesterday at Mass have disappeared, but the cross made on our foreheads is inscribed in our hearts. Jesus is here; he dwells in us, and his Spirit gives us the strength and peace we need to begin our Lenten journey. “Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Do not harden your hearts!” May these words of Psalm 95 awaken us! Thursday After Ash Wednesday A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke: [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) Lent is indeed a call to renunciation—a call to give up everything that hinders us. And many are those things or desires that distract us from what is essential! We think about them a lot. They occupy us to the point that we believe life is all about this: to possess objects, to be admired, to have beautiful clothes, to eat what we like. But when we decide to follow Jesus, we put all these things in their proper place; we know they are far less important. And it is then that we find the meaning of real life, our life as children saved from death and sin by the goodness of God.
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