DAILY HOMILIES #ash wednesday

Never keep until tomorrow whatever good you can do today because you do not know what day will be your last day on earth. This fact is symbolised by the ashes we receive today. “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust, you shall return.” Ashes remind us of our death, the fact that one day, we shall become dust, and the fact that we profit nothing if we gain the world and lose our souls.

If you are alive today and can read or listen to this message, God has given you another chance. It is not too late to return with all your heart to God.

Make the most of this Lent; apply yourself fully to all the spiritual exercises with sincerity and a genuine purpose. Do not show off. Joel says: “Rend your heart, not your garment.” Jesus warns: “Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for you will have no reward in heaven.”

Lent invites us to conversion, to a change in mindset, so that life’s truth and beauty may be found not so much in possessing as in giving, not so much in accumulating as in sowing and sharing goodness.

No matter what the past has been, now is the time to return back to God and this return must take place in your heart, not merely in your external appearance.