Ordinarily the staff and students at St Clare's would be marking the beginning of Lent today with shared prayer and the sign of ashes on our foreheads.

In Ash Wednesday's readings, Joel reminds us of the gracious and merciful nature of God. As we begin our Lenten journey, we are called to reflect on our thoughts and actions. Christ invites us to renew ourselves through a transformation of our hearts. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the virtues that we should live by so that we can experience such a transformation of the heart. 

These virtues of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are at the heart of our Lenten experience. Through prayer we are drawn closer to God so that we are better able to realise our baptismal promise to live justly as Jesus teaches us. Fasting joins us in solidarity with the poor who often have no choice but to live without basic essentials. Almsgiving is a sign of our commitment to justice as we are called to acts of service. 

We are faced with new and unprecedented social and environmental challenges and we are called to re-define the ways in which we pray, fast and give alms this Lent.

Ash Wednesday Mass is being streamed online from St Patrick's church on the parish Youtube channel:

and can be viewed afterwards