Friday After Ash Wednesday 2026

There are two seasons in the liturgical calendar that are meant to reorient us, namely Advent and Lent. In reorienting, we are "re-easting" - literally turning ourselves to the east to face the new dawn, our salvation in Christ. We regain our bearings and set ourselves to what is truly important; we call to mind our true end.

In Advent, we see the star, portending the incarnation of our savior.
In Lent, we face the cross, the means Christ chose for our salvation.

To reorient ourselves, the church gives us prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Yet, we have a dangerous habit of making these and our entire religion procedural. We say to ourselves: "Lent is here, so now it's time to fast, but not from anything too necessary". We routinely set up the same fasts for Lent: no chocolate, no drinking, less time on my phone, etc. We may pray a novena and we probably don't think about almsgiving at all.

And, when Lent is over, we don't grow in holiness - we aren't joined truly to Christ on the cross.
This is the problem Isaiah calls out: that we pray / fast in order "to carry out [our] own pursuits".

Looking at the faith in this procedural way limits the true effects of Christ's sacrifice. Christ is the heavenly gate opened up on the cross, allowing us to enter in and be joined to His redemptive mission by our baptism. We, as the church (the body of Christ), are the instruments God has chosen to bring salvation to others.

Prayer is then not a time of meditation, a zen practice; it's "untying the thongs of the yoke" of our sins. Our intercessions and prayers are actions to dispose us and others to God's grace and our true end in Christ.

Almsgiving is not a waste of money, a virtue-signal. It's us not "turning [our] back on [our] own". We are all made in the image of God and we as Christians are called to show mercy in a world of injustice, even if that means we are inconvenienced for a moment.

Fasting is not just an ascetical practice, not a fad diet, not an unjust punishment. It's us showing that Christ is our Lord, not the many creature comforts that hold us down. We proclaim to the world freedom from slavery, from slavery to mere created things. It's a witness to the truth.

Christ is Truth. What is the Truth worth this Lent?