Even
the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the
beginning of the Lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast. It cannot be otherwise, as it forms part of
the great Easter cycle.
The
Paschal Mystery is above all the mystery of life in which the Church, by
celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, enters into the Kingdom of
Life which He has established once for all by His definitive victory over sin
and death. We must remember the original
meaning of Lent, as the
ver sacrum, the Church’s holy spring in
which the catechumens were prepared for their baptism, and public penitents
were made ready by penance for their restoration to the sacramental life in a
communion with the rest of the Church.
Lent is then not a season of punishment so much as one of healing.
--Thomas Merton, Seasons of Celebration (1956)
Image source: https://www.naturesenergieshealth.com/images/2/img1015.jpg
(The Holy Spring at Lourdes)
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