This week with Ash Wednesday we begin the Season of Lent. In these forty days we allow ourselves to become aware of our deepest desire, that is, our attraction to Christ and the life Christ enables in us. The method is not a rigorous discipline marked by gloomy-faced penances. The readings of the Ash Wednesday liturgy (especially the Gospel) make this clear.

You might find it more helpful to think of these forty days as a time of realigning to Christ…