Reflections on Ash Wednesday (1 day late!)

Scrutemur vias nostras et quaeramus et revertamur ad Dominum.

(Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord.)
- Lamentations 3:40

A wise man once said, "The one principle of Hell is: I am my own" (anyone know who?). Ash Wednesday is a good day to reflect on the fact that we are NOT our own; the ashes are a brand, marking us as the flock belonging to our Master, the Good Shepherd. We have all been bought and paid for with an awesome price.

"Sin needs both definition and acknowledgement. But if neither occurs, it remains, with its effects, on our souls and those of our neighbors. The classical authors teach us to look to our own wills when things go wrong. The cross of ashes -- "Remember, Man, that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return" -- is placed on the forehead of laity and on the crown of the monk's head. Ash Wednesday does not point to itself. But it does point, first to the man who needs to repent, then to the redemption in which alone repentance has its meaning in forgiveness."
- Father James V. Schall, S.J.

"What, I ask, is more wonderful than the beauty of God? What thought is more pleasing and satisfying than God's mercy? ... The radiance of the divine beauty is altogether beyond the power of words to describe."
- St. Basil

This is the time of tension between dying and birth
The place of solitude where three dreams cross
Between blue rocks
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

-From Ash Wednesday, by T.S. Eliot