Go to Your Inner Room

February 6, 2008

Ash Wednesday

By Melanie Rigney

"Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God. For gracious and merciful is he, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment." (Joel 2:12-13)

"Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me." (Psalms 51:3-4)

"…When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you." (Matthew 6:6)

Piety

Lord, give me the confidence of David, to let you inside when I go to my inner room.

Study

Today's Readings

"Covenant" by Sister Margaret Halaska

And so it begins, the most solemn season of our liturgical year.

AmericanCatholic.org notes of Ash Wednesday: "The ashes we receive on our forehead in the shape of a cross serve as an outward sign of our sinfulness and need for penance. The ashes also symbolize our mortality, a reminder that one day we will die and our bodies will return to dust."

Catholics between the ages of fourteen and fifty-nine abstain from meat today and in the main eat only one full meal. We use fasting and abstinence to prepare ourselves for the journey that is Lent.

Today's readings provide beautiful, reassuring guideposts for the journey. The first reading promises that if we return with our whole hearts, we will find our God is "slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment." The psalm reading provides further encouragement for, if David could face God with confidence of forgiveness after having an affair with Bathsheba and sending her husband to certain death, cannot we as well expect to reconcile with the Lord?

Jesus reminds us in the Gospel reading that we needn't publicly beat our breasts to detail our shortcoming and flaws to the world. Rather, he instructs us to go to our "inner room."

Finding that room, let alone entering it, can be exquisitely difficult. Letting God in once you're there can be paralyzing. What will he do when he finds out just how ungodly our thoughts, words, and actions have been? (As if he doesn't already know!) But that's the funny thing about God... the more you let him into your inner rooms, the more rooms you find... and the better you feel. For a beautiful expression about God's willingness to wait as you unlock those rooms, check out Sister Margaret Halaska's poem "Covenant." You'll find it all over the Internet, including at the link above.

Throughout Lent, let us remember that God likes what he sees in us. After all, he made us. We needn't be afraid to let him see his handiwork... and to ask him for help in reinforcing the infrastructure.

Action

Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe

Today or this coming Sunday marks the date for most parishes' 2008 Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe. The U.S. Catholic Council of Bishops established the collection after the collapse of Communism. Rebuilding spiritual centers after decades of religious persecution in this region of the world is a formidable project. Since 1991, this annual collection has provided more than $100 million to more than 3,500 projects in more than twenty-five countries. Please be generous.