I welcome all of you to the beginning of a wonderful journey of forty days called Lent. The Ashes tell us what the purpose of Lent is. It is to die to myself so that I may rise more with Christ. It is to live more deeply the baptismal life that I received many years ago. The goal of Lent is to more deeply renew my baptismal vows on the Feast of Easter.

Jesus in the Gospel tells us to pray in our room with the door closed. We are not to show off our prayer to others.

I don’t think that any of us are going to show off to others. However, we may go through Lent to make ourselves feel good.

"I did a lot for Lent this year. I feel good."

Lent is not about feeling good about ourselves. Lent is going deeper to the core of our being which is that room that the Gospel talks about. It is moving to that space in our lives that is reserved for God only. Lent is about growth.

The word Lent is a German word that means springtime. Our journey is to haave new life in Christ.

The Gospel presents three elements of Lent: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.

Fasting means that we give up something. It could be food or other things. Would we be willing to give up time for a deeper prayer? Yes, we still should pray on the way to work. Yes, we need to pray when we are working or waiting. In addition to this, would we be willing to fast from our favorite TV program to spend quality time and more time in prayer? It is in this kind of prayer when we are not doing anything else or when we don’t have to do a thousand things after that we begin to get closer to the inner room of our lives where we find God.

Almsgiving is to give to others who are in need. Are we willing to bring the world with us to our prayer? Prayer should not be between God and me. It should reach out to my brothers and sisters everywhere.

It is in this way that our Holy Father Pope John Paul II is asking us to spend this day for peace.