Lent is upon us

Rend your hearts and not your garments.

Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love… Joel 2:13

Putting this verse another way; “Wear smudges of ashes on your hearts and not your forehead.  Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful….”

In other words, to wear smudges of ashes on your forehead would amount to nothing but pious ceremony, unpleasing to God, if we did not at the same time wear smudges of ashes on the heart.

It’s easy to wear ashes and other outward signs of religious emotion, but to feel true repentance is the mark of a genuine Christian.

Compliments of the Spring Anglican Digest 2011 and The Very Rev. Frank Limehouse, Dean, Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham, Alabama.