Create in Me (Psalm 51)

The Abbot’s Circle Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday   Poem by T.S. Eliot

There’s some great ideas on Pinterest Boards featuring Ash Wednesday and Lent:

• Holy Days – Ash Wednesday (Christine Way Skinner)
• Ash Wednesday and Lent
• Lent
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Lent and Easter Page

Loyola Press Ash Wednesday Resources

A Liturgy for Ash Wednesday from the Jesuit Institute. It includes this prayer:

Father,
we gather in your presence on this Ash Wednesday,
to seek your forgiveness
and to ask your help in living our lives better.
For the times when we have failed to love. Have mercy, Lord.
For the times when we have not noticed the needs of others. Have mercy, Lord.
For the times when we have refused to forgive. Have mercy, Lord.
These ashes are a sign of our repentance.
Bless them, Lord,
and make them a sign to the world of our desire to change,
and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, your Son.
Amen.

In 2018, the Message of Pope Francis for Lent is “Because of the increase of inquity, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24:12) These words appear in Christ’s preaching about the end of time. They were spoken in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, where the Lord’s passion would begin. In reply to a question of the disciples, Jesus foretells a great tribulation and describes a situation in which the community of believers might well find itself: amid great trials, false prophets would lead people astray and the love that is the core of the Gospel would grow cold in the hearts of many.

In 2019, Pope Francis concluded his Lenten Message this way: “Dear brothers and sisters, the “lenten” period of forty days spent by the Son of God in the desert of creation had the goal of making it once more that garden of communion with God that it was before original sin (cf. Mk 1:12-13; Is 51:3). May our Lent this year be a journey along that same path, bringing the hope of Christ also to creation, so that it may be “set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Let us not allow this season of grace to pass in vain! Let us ask God to help us set out on a path of true conversion. Let us leave behind our selfishness and self-absorption, and turn to Jesus’ Pasch. Let us stand beside our brothers and sisters in need, sharing our spiritual and material goods with them. In this way, by concretely welcoming Christ’s victory over sin and death into our lives, we will also radiate its transforming power to all of creation.”

The Irish Bishops’ Resources for Lent 2018

Lent 2018 United States Bishops.