Ash Wednesday Reflection
March 5, 2025
“The life of the monk ought to be a continuous Lent.” Rule of Benedict 49:1
As a young member in community, I wasn’t sure how to take Benedict’s request. A continuous Lent? How much prayer, fasting and almsgiving could I do? I readily admit that Lent wasn’t a season I looked forward to in those days.
With some maturity and lived experience, I have come to appreciate this season and what it offers me and what it offers us as a community. Lent is about beginning again. The quote, “Even when we fail, always we begin again” Is attributed to Saint Benedict even though it doesn’t appear in the Rule. It probably should be verse 2 of Chapter 49 on the Observance of Lent. Lent is an opportunity to begin again, maybe for the second time, maybe for the fiftieth time. It is a time to reset our intentions, our practices that can help us grow in our relationship with God. In whatever it is we are doing during Lent, it isn’t so much about what we do, as it is about letting God be with us while we do it.
As we enter the season, each of us carries some challenging situations that are weighing us down. We are also praying for Pope Francis as he continues to deal with the ups and downs of illness. We need God’s support to assist us through these situations. Prior to his hospitalization, Pope Francis wrote his message for this year’s Lent. In it, he offered a few reflections on what it means to journey together in hope and the calls to conversion that can be found in it. I readily admit, we all could use some hope these days. The pope broke the phrase up into three parts.
First – to journey. He states that we are “all pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact.” We are called to reflect on whether we are moving on a journey or standing still. Are we waiting for someone to do something? Or are we willing to be an active participant, willing to be stretched in new ways, moving along on this journey? Benedict has so many phrases in the Rule that refer to moving: we shall run on the path of God’s commandments (Prologue: 49), let us set out on this way with the Gospel as our guide (Prologue: 21) and run while you have the light of life, that the darkness of death may not overtake you (Prologue: 13) to name a few just from the prologue to the Rule. Our journey doesn’t have to be a sprint. We just need to keep moving and growing.
Second – to journey together. This portion of the phrase is so Benedictine I hardly need to quote the pope’s message. We each came to Annunciation Monastery to seek God together, in community with others. “Let them prefer nothing to the love of Christ and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.” (RB 72:11-12) Pope Francis encourages us to “all walk in the same direction, tending towards the same goal, attentive to one another in love and patience.” Am I living out the mandate of Chapter 72 on good zeal? Am I showing respect to the other, supporting another’s weakness of body and behavior, and pursuing what is better for the other? (RB 72) That is part of journeying together.
Third – to journey together in hope. Pope Francis asks us to make the central message of this year’s Jubilee, hope does not disappoint from the Letter to the Romans (Rom 5:5), the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter. We are called “to hope, to trust in God and his great promise of eternal life.” Going back to the Rule, Benedict encourages us to deny ourselves some food, drink or sleep and look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing. (RB 49:7) Journeying with hope will bring us to the joy of Easter.
I hope that your Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving may assist you in taking up the pope’s call to journey together in hope.
Link to Pope Francis’ 2025 Ash Wednesday message:
