DUST TO DUST, ASHES TO ASHES

It was a chilly morning as Lorine, myself and the boys drove out to church at 5.10 am. We had to park a mile away as others had beaten us to the race for a seat inside the church. We had to stand during the entire mass. All-in-all, it was a beautiful service ending in the queue for ashes.

In case you're wondering where the words, "Ashes to ashes dust to dust" occur in Holy scriptures, you won't find them there, however, the following scriptures is where the phrase is derived from:

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Before the season of Lent, i heard very interesting conversations like :
'This Lent i will be a total vegetarian. Last time i did that and i lost 6 kilos'
'I do not believe in fasting but i do a lot of charity during Lent'
'My type of fasting is depriving myself of whatever i liked to spoil myself with (massage, restaurant food, new clothes etc.) and give the money i would normally spend to the needy'

Whilst i see many variances among people as to how they observe Lent, i asked myself what i should be doing this season (To be honest with you, I've been no saint when it came to the observance of Lent!).

First of all i needed to know what Lent was all about and this is what i learnt and I'd like to share it with you:

Lent is the period of 40 days of fasting that is preceding Easter. Often this 40 day period is parallelled with the story of Jesus being in the desert for 40 days being tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1-11) and this is the reading for the first Sunday of Lent to remind us of that parallel.  Lent is a period for fasting, prayer and alms giving. Lent has become a period to prepare you heart for the Easter Season.

On a personal note I have to say i particularly like the Ash Wednesday reading that explains that when you fast don't wear it on your sleeve so everyone knows. When you pray don't pray on the street corner pray in the privacy of your own home and God will take care of you. I think this is a powerful message and it is always a great reminder (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) to start off Lent in how we are commissioned to act and react.