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PART ONE
LENT AND THE “OUR FATHER”
An Introduction Ashes. Prayer. Fasting. Confession. Supplication. Repentance. This is the language of Lent, that sacred time of reflection and self-examination, a forty-day journey into the desert. It begins on Ash Wednesday, when a charred cross is traced across our brows, a reminder of our mortality: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” That simple act is also a reminder that the brow of the Son of Man was marked with thorns and blood, with love and sacrifice. At Lent, the disciple is called to follow more closely in the steps of his master, to take up the cross, and to follow him into the wilderness in preparation for the Paschal Triduum. Like Daniel, who longed to return to Jerusalem out of captivity in Babylon, the Christian begins the Lenten journey by seeking his maker and admitting his own unworthy state: “So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” The journey to the New Jerusalem
Praying the Our Father in Lent.indd 5
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