There’s something about Ash Wednesday that draws us in, calls us to return to sanity, to a change of heart and mind.
Lent doesn’t take us away from our ordinary lives, but rather it invites us to bring a new and holy attention to those activities. This should be the way with all of our spiritual practices. We take time apart in order to return to our daily activities with new inspiration. God will always surprise us with possibilities when we least expect them. Let this Lent be one of those surprises.
— from the book The Hope of Lent: Daily Reflections from Pope Francis by Diane M. Houdek
