Another chance!
It’s Ash Wednesday 2018, Mass just celebrated and crosses traced on foreheads. It always strikes me when I see people coming to Holy Communion a little later in the Mass, how the ashes, blessed and placed have settled and the shape of the Cross becomes so clear. A short while earlier, the ashes mixed with some water and blessed with Holy Water are damp and find their shape beneath my thumb as I say again and again “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.” People willing to be “marked” with the sign of the cross and to carry that sign from the church, into their day and into Lent. Later in the Mass, the sign – the dust – has settled and the Cross is clear.
To all who have begun this journey, peace and strength to you for its duration. To all promises made and intentions renewed, blessing and encouragement. For all falls and fails that may well beset us, strength to begin again.
The Trocaire Box slogan “Don’t give up on her” is apt. We won’t. God won’t give up on us either.