Trinity News

Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012 7 p.m.

As the season of Lent begins each year, God's people are invited to take on three great disciplines: prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. Jesus' words in the gospel remind us that our acts of faithfulness always come as a response to God's gifts. Remembering this gives a note of humility to all we do. Piety is not something to brag about. Piety is not something to be proud of. Piety is but acknowledgment of the one who first gave us everything.

The beginning of Lent gives us the occasion to admit that we will die and that we are sinners. On Ash Wednesday we are marked with ashes-a sign of our death and of our sorrow for sin-but the ashes trace a cross on our forehead, where the baptismal water first marked us with God's grace.