Re-Igniting The Fire: An Invitation for Ash Wednesday

A couple of days ago, on a drive to Toronto, I found myself thinking of ashes (not my usual sort of thought on the 401!). I was thinking in this vein as I pondered Ash Wednesday upcoming. In Christian Tradition, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent; a journey of some 40 days with Christ through cross to resurrection culminating in the celebration of Easter. Historically, marking with ashes in our various churches has been associated almost solely with repentance, but this association, while important, is far from the full invitation of the Lenten season. So back to my thoughts on ashes!

My mind wandered first to a distant memory of childhood when my grandmother would have me help her gather the ashes from the open fire grate to spread on her lovely English garden to enrich the soil for new growth; an act of faith and possibility. Lent is not about becoming stuck in an “ash heap of sinfulness” and negativity toward the self but rather a reaching out to God, for mercy, new growth, for transformation and conversion of heart. In a beautiful poem, “Blessing the Dust”, Jan Richardson reminds us of this hopeful reality and divine invitation. She writes:

All those days
you felt like dust, like dirt,
as if all you had to do was to turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered to the four corners
or swept away
By the smallest breath
as insubstantial -
did you not know
 what the Holy One  
can do with dust?

What can God do in me as I open myself once again to the graces of Lent? The very existence of ashes pre-supposes earlier fire, fire that has the capacity to purify, energize, and comfort with its warmth. What about the fire in my life and faith now? Has it grown lukewarm or been extinguished perhaps by struggle, doubt, suffering, loss, simple neglect, busyness, or the negativity and division that exist in Church and society today? Perhaps Lent, is above all, an invitation, with God’s love and mercy to rekindle the fire in my spirit, for God, the world and neighbour, near and far. In his 2026 message for Lent, Listening and Fasting: Lent as a Time of Conversion, Pope Leo says,

“Lent is a time that invites us to place the mystery of God back in the centre of our lives, to find renewal in our faith and to keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life.” It is, he says, a call to restore “the quality of our relationships and dialogue” by listening to the Word of God and to the cry of those who are oppressed.

This is what “constantly challenges our lives, societies, political and economic systems, and not least the Church.” In the spirit of the ‘ever ancient, ever new’, Lenten traditions of prayer, fasting and charitable works, he invites us to the practical, to a deeper prayer and to respectful listening and caring action. He suggests a more profound fasting - a fast from “words that offend and hurt our neighbour”. As we consider the world at this present time how important that is.

May my Lenten practices, this year be prayerful acts of respect, kindness, dialogue, integrity of relationship. On this Ash Wednesday might I first ask myself, “is there warmth in the ashes still?” If so, I pray, rekindle in me the fire of Love.

 -Sister Mary Rowell, csj

Image: Pablo Martinez @pablomp/Ahna Ziegler @artzUnsplash

National Wildlife Day

“Some Wilderness Ramblings”
A Celebration of National Wildlife Day

Sergey Pesterev

As I write these few words I’m grateful to be spending some restful days in a wild place of lakes and deep forests. It is a place where the trees, fungi, plants, wildflowers and waters form a community with the animals whose home this is. All around the songbirds sing their morning praise. In the evenings, the loons cry out their haunting melodies calling out creation’s mystery. The tap, tap-tapping of woodpeckers echoes throughout the day as they create nature’s sculptures in the ancient log on the deck. The sound of tiny footsteps declare the arrival of squirrels and chipmunks seeking nourishment. Glorious, luminous dragonflies and butterflies fill the air with gentle patterns in flight. Fish, large and small dart across the water’s edge and leap from the depths of the lake toward the sunlight, shimmering in its radiance. Ants scurry busily, with great intent, like a miniature army. Sometimes, a small garter snake lazily slithers through the brush and very occasionally, I am reliably told, a black bear is sighted on its visits in the area.

This place is the place of belonging for such a vast and magnificent diversity of creatures. All are here “at home” by some “divine right” – they belong by nature. We humans, albeit an intrinsic part of the whole of creation, are in some senses, invitees of all other creatures. As, Wendell Berry, poet, writer, environmental activist and cultural critic writes, I can truly belong to this place “only by understanding and by virtue”. We humans are called into an intimacy with the natural world and we belong only in so far as we open ourselves to growing awareness and by living responsibly for the preservation of the wild that gifts us with life and beauty.  

In Canada, National Wildlife Day is celebrated on September 4. On this day we are reminded of the magnificent diversity of life in creation upon which all life depends. The specially designated day honours the legacy of Steve Irwin the conservationist and television personality known popularly as "The Crocodile Hunter".  The day serves to encourage, and for more than a day, the need to expand and deepen our awareness of the array of species around us, no matter whether we live in countryside or city, and of the vast multitude of animal communities, globally.  The day, assigned, calls us to protect endangered species. Current research demonstrates that thousands of species are at risk of extinction caused by unthinking, rapacious human intervention and concurrent environmental change and habitat loss. National Wildlife Day reminds us of the essential role played by plants and animals in maintaining ecological balance necessary for the very existence of life itself. The Day stresses the importance of wildlife conservation. It calls for individual and communal efforts to preserve and allow the flourishing of biological diversity and the beauty of the wilderness now and for future generations.

Derek Sutton

What am I called to be and to do in response? Perhaps it’s a simple yet vital first step of expanding consciousness by immersing ourselves in the world’s magnificence, simply taking a walk in nature and allowing it to touch and teach us. As wildlife biologist, Erik Reisen writes maybe it is first a matter of, “Paying attention to the things most of us ignore or simply don’t take time to notice in our daily comings and goings – to see the natural world through a magnifying glass or in a poem, is the first step toward wanting to preserve it.” On National Wildlife Day let us simply pay attention, give thanks and commit to action!

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj

Image: Vincent van Zalinge/Unsplash

Moving Together

Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Together, this week we have celebrated the election of a new Pope, Leo XIV and we have continued to give thanks for the life of Pope Francis, his predecessor. Both have something to say to us regarding Sunday’s celebration of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations held on Good Shepherd Sunday.

Written just before his death, Pope Francis wrote his Message for the 62nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations in which he reiterates that each and every one of us is called in a particular way through the God who is Love to live lives of love. He wrote: “A vocation is a precious gift that God sows in our heart, a call to leave ourselves behind and embark on a journey of love and service. Every vocation within the Church, whether lay, ordained or consecrated, is a sign of hope that God has given for this world”

““move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another! We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us.””

— Pope Leo XIV

In his first public words, Pope Leo speaks of that same universal call, from “the God who loves us all unconditionally.” He reminds us to “move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another! We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us.” The Christ who goes before us is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for each one of us. It is precisely from such self-giving love that we are chosen, called and affirmed in life and in our faith and service.  

As we go forward in hope and in the integrity of our vocations we strengthen one another. Each vocation faithfully lived out becomes gift in helping us hear God’s call anew each day, we become witnesses to one another, a revelation of fidelity in the whole mosaic of God’s design – each, a part of the whole. Pope Francis left us a reminder that “a vocation is never a treasure stored away in the heart; rather it grows and is strengthened within a community that believes, loves and hopes. No one can respond to God’s call alone, for all of us need the prayers and support of our brothers and sisters.”

So, today, on the World Day of Prayer for Vocations – first instituted in the Church in 1964, we pray for one another for our fidelity to that way of life to which Love calls us.  We also remember, in a special way, to pray for an increase in vocations to religious life and priesthood. We pray that the Good Shepherd will seek out many who will respond with joy to God’s call in a world hungry for hope.

-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ

Image: Jaka Škrlep/Anna Church/ Unsplash

The Hope of Easter Monday

As far as holidays go, Easter Monday in Canada is a bit “hit or miss”! The Federal Government lists it as a statutory holiday and some provinces and territories keep it as such, others don’t or it is left to the discretion of employers. When I immigrated to Canada from the U.K. I must confess this was a big surprise and disappointment especially when studying theology at the University of Toronto I found myself having to take exams on Easter Monday! I had been used to Easter Monday as a day of joyful relaxation, of sharing happiness with all. In many countries it is a day marked by festivities with families and friends, a time to take trips, enjoy meals together and, from a Christian perspective, a time for continuation of Easter celebration. 

Once I had recovered from my Easter Monday nostalgia I began to think of the day anew. At the very heart of Easter Monday is the hope-filled news of resurrection – new life and promise as Springtime too unfolds with its gifts. It isn’t simply a continuation of Easter celebrations. Rather, Easter Monday reminds us to move forward in hope. It is a day to celebrate faith and self-giving love, a time for reflection on the promise of life given us in Christ and in the seasons celebrated more widely by all. Easter Monday provides us with a gateway into the long Easter season of joy as we contemplate the transformative potential given in faith in the Paschal Mystery. Even in hard, dead times the memory and rebirth of hope to be rekindled is ever-present. The whole Easter season sends out an invitation to reach toward others, especially those who may be struggling with disillusionment, grief, anxiety and to the decimated Earth. A good question to ask of ourselves is “what difference does resurrection make in my life and in my care for others and in my world perspective”? Perhaps we can say, “it makes all the difference in the world!”  

In a beautiful, albeit sad, poem called, “Easter Monday”, written by poet, Eleanor Farjeon in memory of her friend, Edward Thomas who was killed on Easter Monday, 1917 on a battlefield in France during World War 1, we catch glimpses of still-existent hope. We read of promise beyond the present moment, a restoration of life even in death, resurrection in harsh reality and loss.  The poem reflects a sudden and extreme grief but also echoes magnificently in the final verse, the consolation of the Divine in its images of Easter and the new life of Spring: 

That Easter Monday was a day for praise, 
It was such a lovely morning. 
In our garden we sowed our earliest seeds, 
and in the orchard, the apple bud was ripe.  

May this easter Monday bring seeds of hope and new life to all.  

-Sister Mary Rowell, csj

Images: Unsplash Tim Gouw

Ash Wednesday in Two Words

If there are two words that perhaps best describe the intent of Ash Wednesday and of the Lenten season that follows, those words are found in the Scripture assigned to the day.  In the second reading in the liturgy for Ash Wednesday (2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2) we read “be reconciled to God”  .. in the present moment “for now is the acceptable time” (and what a hard time we are facing in the world just now; a time when our Lenten commitments find added importance).

What might the words, “be reconciled” mean as, once again, we are called to move into the season of Lent? What might they mean as we hope to sustain our Lenten commitments beyond the designated season in ways that impact our living for the life of God’s world?

Reconciliation, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is to “restore friendly relationships”. To deepen, strengthen or to restore relationships, is then, at the very heart of living Lent and indeed life more widely. As I begin Lent, I might ask myself how is my relationship with God, with self, with other humans and with all of creation of which I am a part? How am I called to repent of broken relationships? How do I need to become more deeply a person of relationship and reconciliation? What do I need to do so as form or deepen relationships of love and respect?

These questions go far beyond the three traditional practices of Lent, the call to prayer, fasting and almsgiving (charity toward the neighbour) and yet the traditional practices remain significant as a means toward the restoration or deepening of right relationships.  Lenten practices are never ends in themselves. They are always God-and other-directed!  They help us creatively mend and build relationship with God, other humans and all of creation. It is only in relationship that they find meaning.

In Lent we remind ourselves anew of the Pascal Mystery and Jesus’ journey to the cross and to resurrection not because God wills suffering but because in the face of injustice and cruelty Christ commits to an ultimate act of reconciliation and an act of hope. In so doing he calls us to follow Him, to repair relationships that cause pain, separation and destruction. He opens for us a way by reminding us how deeply we are loved, even in our vulnerabilities and frailties; loved in order that we may love in turn. In Lent we walk with Him and he walks with us in the joys and turmoil of our lives.

So, this Lent and especially in our current, violent, broken world may we be “reconciled” and become reconcilers like Christ, menders of breaches, bearers of hope!  

-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ

Image: Ahna Ziegler/Unsplash