Happy Ash Wednesday! No one says that, do they? Ash Wednesday is not a happy day it is a day of extreme conscientiousness. What I mean by that is that it is a day of deep soul searching and often that is not what one would call a happy experience.
The prophets of the Old Testament were quite often calling us back to God and they did so by appealing to our conscience. Our conscience is that part of us that knows right and wrong and makes us aware and ashamed when we fail to live up to God’s, or even our own, ideals.
This day let us commit to knowing the effects of our actions, and inactions, let’s feel appropriately guilty and ashamed, and let’s lean in to Jesus who graciously accepts us we are, forgives us, and calls us to a better life.
Let us pray: Father in Heaven, give me a mind that is aware of my faults and failings, make me feel remorse about what I have done or failed to do, help me be accountable for my behavior – make me a conscientious Christian. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
