Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday. For anyone who doesn't know, that means that today is the day that practicing Catholics begin 40 days of repentance before Easter. These 40 days are meant to mimic the 40 days that Jesus spent in the desert prior to beginning His ministry in Galilee.

Repentance. That got me thinking, as it always does, because I never know what I'm giving up for Lent until Ash Wednesday. I try to never do the same thing because I believe that I need to constantly be challenging myself - it's not hard if you do pick something easy on purpose. The thought process that I go through each year includes the questions: what is something that I need to do to better myself? and what is something that I need? Each year, these questions rotate in importance depending on the events going on in my life at the time, as I'm sure you all can relate to.

Now, I am far from perfect. Like everyone else, I would really like to be perfect, but I know that I am not and I never will be. I make mistakes and struggle with aspects of life just like everybody else. I know that I am no one to judge others and I try very hard not to. Quotes like this one put that into perspective: because everyone, no matter how good they are now, has made at least one mistake in their lifetime and everyone who is in the middle of their most recent mistake, will learn from it and move on. St Peter, the first pope, one of the Twelve Apostles, made mistakes. He even went so far as to renounce Jesus when he knew Him! We regard Peter, the Rock, as a saint, even though we all know his past and who he was before - it's written all over the Bible. (At least when I make a mistake, it doesn't get written down in a Book that will be read for centuries to come!)

The way I see this, is that if Jesus can forgive Peter for renouncing Him at exactly the moment that He would have needed all the support He could get from His friends - then He can forgive me, and I can forgive myself, for the mistakes that I have made in my life and all the many that I will make in the future.

So maybe this Lenten season, we need to not give up candy or chocolate or coffee, but instead really take a look at what we need and what will make us a better person. Maybe if we do that, we can make fewer mistakes. Or maybe we will just avoid a few and make different ones. Either way, as long as we are really trying, God will forgive us for our mistakes - we just need to put our faith in Him and remember, that no matter how bad we have been, we can always change and be better.