{"id":16317,"date":"2020-02-26T17:40:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T17:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/?p=16317"},"modified":"2020-03-12T19:45:50","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T19:45:50","slug":"ash-wednesday-you-are-dust-and-unto-dust-you-shall-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/2020\/02\/26\/ash-wednesday-you-are-dust-and-unto-dust-you-shall-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Ash Wednesday: “You are dust and unto dust you shall return”"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Today the Church begins the Holy Season of Lent by which she \u201cunites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.\u201d \u2013 Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/a><\/em>, 540<\/p>

\u201cThe seasons and days of penance<\/em>\u00a0in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church’s penitential practice.\u00a0These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).\u201d \u2013 CCC<\/em>, 1438<\/p>

The following resources may help you to better enter into this time of preparation for Holy Week and Easter, our journey with Christ toward His Cross and Resurrection.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u201cAsh Wednesday<\/u>\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 from Catholic Voice<\/a>:<\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Taken from the Office of Readings for Ash Wednesday:<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/h4>

From a letter to the Corinthians by Saint Clement, pope<\/u><\/p>

(Cap. 7,7-8,3; 8,5-9,1;13,1-4;19,2: Funk 1, 71-73,77-78)<\/p>

Repent<\/em><\/p>

Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ and recognize how precious it is to God his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world.<\/p>

If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has\u00a0offered the opportunity of repentance<\/em>\u00a0to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God\u2019s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God\u2019s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not of God\u2019s people.<\/p>

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God\u2019s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath:\u00a0As I live,<\/em>\u00a0says the Lord,\u00a0I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance.<\/em>\u00a0He added this evidence of his goodness:\u00a0House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, \u201cFather\u201d, and I will listen to you as a holy people.<\/em><\/p>

In other words, God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarrelling and jealousy which only lead to death.<\/p>

Brothers, we should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, we should act in accordance with the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit says:\u00a0The wise man must not glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just.<\/em>\u00a0Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance.\u00a0Be merciful,<\/em>\u00a0he said,\u00a0so that you may have mercy shown to you. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you treat others, so you will be treated. As you give, so you will receive. As you judge, so you will be judged. As you are kind to others, so you will be treated kindly. The measure of your giving will be the measure of your receiving.<\/em><\/p>

Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. As Scripture asks:\u00a0Whom shall I look upon with favour except the humble, peaceful man who trembles at my words?<\/em><\/p>

Sharing then in the heritage of so many vast and glorious achievements, let us hasten toward the goal of peace, set before us from the beginning. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of peace and all his blessings.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today the Church begins the Holy Season of Lent by which she \u201cunites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.\u201d \u2013 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 540 \u201cThe seasons and days of penance\u00a0in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord)… <\/p>\n

Read MoreAsh Wednesday: “You are dust and unto dust you shall return”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1993],"tags":[1107,2104,2103],"class_list":["post-16317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1993","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-catholic-voice","tag-lent"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ssvmusa.org\/1s2s3v5m6\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/ashes-cropped.png?fit=218%2C186&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16317"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16335,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16317\/revisions\/16335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssvmusa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}