Ash Wednesday on Valentines Day

Repent and Believe in the Gospel...

As the ashes are posed on our foreheads, the words are said by the lay ministers who administer them and God's love envelope me and I feel His goodness overflow...

Today we celebrate two distinct occasions, so different, yet, same at the same time... Ohhh.. that got me confused. LOL! I mean they are different in the sense that one is a time to reflect, abstain and even fast while the other is a "romantic" setting where one dines and feast on sumptuous concoctions as a celebration of love for a partner, the joy of finding someone to share your special moments with, your life with. Yet, even as these two occasions are celebrated so differently, it all stems from one thing. LOVE. Valentines signifies the joy one feels on having someone in their lives, while Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten Season and Lent, the death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate manifestation of God's love for us, He sacrificed His own son, so that we might be saved.


I cannot imagine how immense that love can be. I know I love my family. My husband and my kids and I'll do anything for them. Yes, I believe that I'd even die for them. But I cannot fathom the pain Jesus must have put Himself through, for His love for us. To die is one thing but to be put through the ordeal, He has gone through, that is one intense love! Be whipped, crowned with thorns, to carry a cross that maybe triple or even more his own weight, and then be nailed to the cross and hanged there for all to see... I can't imagine the suffering and humiliation He must have gone through...

It brings tears to my eyes to realize that love, God has for me (and for you too!), for everyone for that matter. Yet, I question His love time and again when I go through challenges and think that I'm in such a deep deep hole that I cannot get out. A hole I myself has dug myself into... But Jesus, He didn't do anything wrong... He just loved.

I pray that this Season of Lent, I may continue to experience God's love and that my heart be changed to conform to Him and may I learn and imbue deep within me the kind of love that is worthy of our Lord.