Readings 022026
Lent is the season of penance—
a season that asks something real of us.
Ashes on our heads.
No meat on Fridays.
More fasting,
More prayer.
More almsgiving.
More turning our lives—slowly, honestly—back toward God.
Because Lent calls us to a contrite heart.
A heart of deep remorse,
sincere repentance,
a heart broken open by truth
and humbled before the Lord.
But if we’re honest…
how many of us actually do that.
How many of us let Lent drift by
without letting it touch the heart.
Then we hear proclaimed,
“You came to heal the contrite of heart… Lord, have mercy.”
And something in the true believer bows low,
because the heart knows that prayer is true.
A contrite heart—
the heart that finally stops pretending,
the heart that feels its own cracks,
the heart brave enough to say,
“Against you only have I sinned.”
I’ve lived that.
I’ve wandered.
I’ve chased what I wanted
and left God off the list.
But the Lord never stopped calling.
Never stopped waiting.
Never stopped whispering mercy.
And today Jesus reminds us why we fast—
not to perform,
not to impress,
but to find Him again.
How can they mourn, He says,
when the Bridegroom is with them?
That’s the heart of Lent.
We repent not to earn love,
but to return to it.
The Bridegroom is here.
The Bridegroom is calling.
And a contrite heart—
a humbled heart—
is never turned away.
Lord, have mercy.
Heal the heart that finally comes home.
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
turn my heart back to You this Lent.
Give me the courage to stop pretending
and let Your mercy reach my hidden places.
Teach me to fast with love
and to pray with honesty.
Heal the contrite heart that returns to You
and make it Yours again.
Amen
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