For dust you are and to dust you shall return....

Today is Ash Wednesday.  This is a very important Feast Day in the Roman Catholic Church of which I am proud to belong.

Easter is my favorite holiday.  It is the day that my Lord and Savior arose from the grave.  What a great thing to celebrate!!  We celebrate, Christmas, the day of Christ's birth and we celebrate Good Friday, the day of  Christ's Death but neither of these would mean a thing if not for Christ's rising from that death.

If not for Easter, Jesus would have just been another great prophet and martyr, albeit one who met all the prophesies of the Old Testament.  It was His conquering death that proved him to be our Savior and that gives us the faith that through Him we will all have eternal life.  How great Thou art!!!

So, on this day, Christians throughout the world unite to prepare for this great event known as Easter. We start by marking ourselves with ashes to remind ourselves that we are but dust and to dust we shall return.  We are nothing without Christ.  This is a reminder to begin preparing a place for Him in our hearts and in our lives.  We do this with fasting and abstinence.  I personally, fast and abstain on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  I also abstain from eating meat on all the Fridays of Lent.  This is not, however, a great sacrifice for me.  I am not a huge meat eater and don't miss it at all.  So I always try to do something extra for Lent.  This year I am going to take care of this temple that God gave me.  I will do some sort of physical exercise for at least 30 minutes, 5 days each week.  I will also be spending more quiet time with my Lord each day in prayer.

These are good goals for me because these are the areas in my life with which I struggle.  As I force myself to find the time and inclination to do these things, I will be reminded of Christ's hardships and struggles that he suffered for me.  My paltry little attempts do not equal a teardrop in an ocean as compared to the agonies suffered by Christ for my sins.

So today I will go to church and recieve ashes.  I will fast, which means, I will only have one full meal today and two light meals that do not equal the large meal and I will not consume any meat today.

May I wish you peace and strength if you are also starting your Lenten Journey and I wish you happiness and contentment if your faith life is different from mine.