Lent comes 'to reawaken us,' Pope says at Ash Wednesday Mass
Lent is meant to wake up Christians and help them see that God can give them the strength to change their lives and their surroundings, Pope Francis said.
Before receiving and distributing ashes at an evening Mass March 5, Ash Wednesday, Pope Francis gave a homily focused on a line from the prophet Joel: "Rend your hearts, not your garments."
The prophet, he said at the Mass at Rome's Basilica of Santa Sabina, "reminds us that conversion can't be reduced to exterior forms or vague resolutions, but involves and transforms one's entire existence, starting with the center of the person, the conscience."
The Mass began after a penitential procession from the nearby monastery of St. Anselm. To a chanted litany of saints, the pope walked behind Benedictines from St. Anselm, Dominicans from Santa Sabina and cardinals who work in the Vatican.
The pope received ashes from Slovakian Cardinal Jozef Tomko, the cardinal-priest of Santa Sabina.
Conversion starts with recognizing that "we are creatures, that we are not God," the pope said in his homily at Mass. Too many people today, he said, think they have power and "play at being God the creator."
During Lent, he said, Christians are called to use the three elements the Gospel recommends for spiritual growth: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.Also read: 40 Things You Should Give Up for Lent
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