I am always surprised by the large and diverse number of people who come for ashes on Ash Wednesday: Catholics, non-Catholics, active parishioners, non-active parishioners, people who live in town and people who seem to be just passing through. It is as if the Catholic rituals with which we begin the season of Lent holds a certain attraction for a diverse group of people. It suggests to me that people from all parts of our society have some sense of their need for forgiveness, their need to change the way they have been living, no matter what their level of faith or religious observance might be.

What attracts you to receive the blessed ashes on Ash Wednesday? What draws you to take on particular works of sacrifice and charity this Lent? What makes you enter the season of Lent with some kind of desire to change the way you are living? A friend of mine often says, “Christianity is not a method of self-improvement. It is an experience of grace.” Our receiving of the ashes and taking upon ourselves certain Lenten sacrifices and works of charity are not meant to be a way to drop a few pounds or get back in shape or merely become a nicer person or take a six-week break from that nasty habit I have. Rather they are meant to open us to an “experience of grace,” which is to say, an experience of God. Our Lenten prayer and sacrifice can be opportunities to experience the grace of God’s mercy, forgiveness and tender love. They enable us to realize (which is to say, “make more real”) the fact that while we are not half as good as we thought we were, we are loved more than we could ever imagine. Moreover, this process of our Lenten prayer and sacrifice open us to meet again in a particularly personal way the God that Jesus reveals: the God of abundant mercy, plenteous forgiveness and unconditional love. That is “an experience of grace”! They don’t call it “amazing grace” for nothing!