KykNET Lent Guide 2023Sample

Week of Preparation:

Sister Death,

who walks with me

in the silence of my bones,

in the harmony of a beat

due to cease one day.

Dear heart, my heart,

carrying within you

life's rhythm:

one day you will go silent.

Dear heart, my heart,

to stay mute forever?

to be dust, no more?

To be dust, no doubt,

a sap feeding into

the desert flowers . . .

But to stay quiet, no.

What is for sure: Dust

you will be, enamoured dust.

Dust you will be, enamoured dust.

Enamoured Dust by Luis Carlos Herrera

“For dust you are, and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3:19) AOV

The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday. On this day, we come into contact with our own mortality. On Ash Wednesday it is the practice of many churches to draw a cross of ash on their foreheads. This ash usually comes from the burning of the previous year’s Palm Sunday’s palm leaves.

Something inside of each one of us knows exactly why we receive this ash: “For dust you are, and to dust you will return!” No doctor of Metaphysics needs to explain this. Ash is dust and dust is dirt: life comes it. Life also returns to dirt.

Lent is a season for each of us to sit in ash. To lament in our brokenness. To let go of what keeps us from a life with God. To choose not to continue with life as usual. To wait while growth takes place in us. And to be still, so that God can do His work within us.

Exercise:

Take some time with God to decide how you’d like to prepare yourself for Lent:

• What would you like to do less of, perhaps fast from during this time?
• What would you like to do more of, perhaps take up a spiritual practice that is life-giving to you?
• What would you like to ask the Lord for in this coming season?

Repetition Prayer:

Lord, give me the grace to accept my own mortality.