Dust Thou Art...

 

We are at the beginning of Lent, a time of penance and interior renewal to enable us to prepare for Easter. The Church's liturgy invites us to purify our souls and to begin again. I am, as I'm sure everyone is, struck by those hauntingly beautiful words that were first spoken by God to Adam after he committed sin. "...dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return" (Gn 3:19).  They are repeated today to those that come forth for the distribution of ashes, to remind us of our nothingness and the reality of death. God wants us, he longs for us to return to Him with our whole heart, mind, body and soul. Our hearts, however, are in need of conversion through penance and mortification. Our fasting today and throughout all of Lent, should not only be a bodily one, but also a deep interior fast, as one cannot be fruitful without the other. Ask for the grace today of humility to see what needs changed in your heart. Pray the Litany of Humility on your knees in total surrender.

St. Teresa of Avila is my patron saint, whom I adore. Let us close with her fervent prayer to our Sweet Savior:

"O Lord, I would rather live and die in hope, and in the effort to gain eternal life, than to possess all creatures and their perishable goods. Do not abandon me, O Lord! I hope in You, and my hope will not be confounded. Give me the grace to serve You always and dispose of me as You wish."