PROVIDENCE — Repentance, reconciliation and renewal — those three “R’s” are going to make all the difference in our spiritual journeys this Lent, Bishop Emeritus Thomas J. Tobin told the faithful gathered for Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence.
“Without a doubt, Lent is a season of abundant grace that the Lord provides for all of us,” Bishop Tobin told all those gathered at today’s noon Mass before blessing and imposing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful.
“We know that the growing in holiness, growing in faith, is a work of lifetime. It's never perfect. It is never complete. And sometimes as we strive for holiness and growth, sometimes it seems we take two steps forward and then one step backwards. Sometimes we fall. We sin despite our best efforts growing in boldness. Growing in perfection is the work of a lifetime.”
We can only make progress in our spiritual lives with the help of God's grace, the bishop explained.
“We can't ignore our responsibility to do better, to grow in faith, but we can't really make any progress without God's help, without God's grace. May the ashes that we're about to receive now, mark us truly as pilgrims on this sacred spiritual journey.”
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the 40-day season of Lent which Catholics observe through fasting and abstinence from meat, prayer and penance, and almsgiving. Lent anticipates and prepares the faithful for the celebration of the great feast of Easter, Christ’s resurrection from the dead. The ashes imposed on Ash Wednesday come from burning the blessed palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
This year, Lent begins on March 5 as we observe Ash Wednesday. It continues through the afternoon of Holy Thursday, April 17, and ends as we begin the Sacred Paschal Triduum with the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.
Learn more about Lent in the Diocese of Providence at www.dioceseofprovidence.org/lent.
