“So let us be Ambassadors for Christ. Let us stop blowing our own trumpets and living like hypocrites. Let us put away the gloom and put on our work clothes. Let us put aside ideas of us versus them and start working together. We all belong to one another and we have only one home.”

“The first step towards conversion is becoming conscious of our inordinate desires for transient and perishable things that draw us away from God”

“Are we Christians in name only and not in deed? Do we live out our days in the graced freedom of the children of God? Do we pray as the Spirit guides us? As disciples do we act with courage and hope in our heavenly Father?”

“Penance in turn is underpinned with the knowledge that mankind has been reconciled with God by the death and resurrection of Christ. We have been lifted to God; we do not lift ourselves.”

“Sin, if it is serious, can stamp out love, but all sin, naughty or wicked, distorts us. It involves a kind of growing addiction.”

“the Christian understanding of holiness is not about seeking a cold perfection. It is about allowing our hearts and our minds to be transformed by the tender love of God, and allowing that tender love to radiate to our world”

“our penances should train us to shun vice and to increase in virtue; they should deal a mortal blow to our sinful habits and enable us to die to ourselves and our self-centred sinful desires”

“So whether we fail in our Lenten penance by not even trying, by trying and not succeeding, or by succeeding in a superficial and self-satisfied way, the practice reminds us of our weakness, of our sinfulness, of our need for God’s mercy – and that, of course, is exactly what Lent is all about. It is a time to recall quite why, and how much, we need those great saving events which we prepare to commemorate at Easter.”

“Lent is indeed a time for seeking an audience – but with God, rather than with other people”

“If we lack love then praise and blame become either empty or destructive”

“Lent begins with ashes and ends with the fire, the paschal fire of the resurrection, the assurance of what we shall be”

“We Christians are too hopeful to reduce ourselves to a handful of dust, and too realistic simply to fantasise that grace is magic. The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are the residue of the celebration of Passion Sunday.”

“The perfect human life of the Son of God has become the source of our healing from the spiritual sickness of sin: our lives can be healed through his cross”

“The Good News of the Gospel is that although in death we shall return to dust, through Jesus the dust that is ourselves will be raised to share in the glory of his resurrection.”

“It’s not possible, then, to turn our hearts to Him, unless we also consider the rest of Creation. God’s goodness isn’t meant to stay wrapped up inside us, just for ourselves. We are to share it with others, to build it into our communities.”

“A truth that applies to every person who has ever been born is that they will meet death”

“Jesus tells us to not draw attention to ourselves, by doing good works for others to see. Something to think about this Lent might be to do the opposite as well. Allow others to see that we are sinners too.”

“We need to examine our hearts, our conscience, and in true sincerity and sacrifice – return to God”

“Ash Wednesday takes very seriously that fundamental reality of life: our death”

“Following the way of the Lord Jesus is to learn to sit lightly to the things of this world, for all their beauty and goodness, to refuse to be trapped into setting our hearts on anything less than the love of God”

“When I pray, may it be more about someone else’s needs than mine. If I give help to another, may it be more about him or her and than me. And if I fast let it be not for me but for the one who died for me on the cross, for he is the one who will truly feed me in this holy season of Lent.”

“Part of life is loss which leads to grief. But grief, depending on how we carry it, can lead to bitterness and anger or to freedom, peace and a new sense of self.”

“Biblical tradition affirms that when we seek to care for the weak and powerless, not in a paternalistic, condescending sort of way, but in recognizing our equal rights to dignity and the fullness of life, then we will be living in harmony with God’s will and the vision of the Reign of God!”

“A close relationship with God is the purpose of our lives but we must have the will to devote all our efforts to it”

“The sight of so many others wearing this sign of repentance should be an encouragement to us to make a real effort to renew our Christian lives”

“The symbol of repentance rises out of the symbol with which the advent of the Saviour is acclaimed, the beginning of our re-enactment of the mystery of our passing with Christ from death to resurrection”

“I invite us to approach this Lent as time to ‘remember’ who we are in the sight of God rather than what we are”

“Jesus Christ wants to be the center of your life. That power around which all of your talents, all your abilities, all of your powers revolve. Jesus says 'I want to live in you. I want to be your life, your mind, your will.' To pray it seems to me is to access that center.”