Wenesde Ash
Even though Ash Wednesday no be holy day wey e compulsory to attend Mass, e be one of the liturgical celebrations wey people dey attend pass for our Church calendar. Maybe this one dey show how our hearts dey long for Lent wey go bear good fruit and change our lives every year. These forty days dey honour and imitate the forty days wey Jesus spend for desert immediately after His baptism and just before He begin His public ministry. Jesus use those forty days fast and pray, and after that, He allow the evil one tempt Am with every kind of temptation. These temptations na the same temptations wey we dey face. Na why our Lord endure them when hunger don weak His body well-well and He dey all alone.
As we dey begin our Lenten journeys, na our custom to give up something, fast, no chop meat today and on Fridays, spend more time for prayer, and do more acts of love for God and our neighbour. These meditations go carry you, one step at a time, to dey with our Lord for desert, so that you fit follow His example fulfil these Lenten duties with more devotion. You go think deeply about wetin Jesus pass through during those days, feel wetin He feel, experience wetin He experience, imitate wetin He do, fast with Am, pray with Am, and face the temptations wey He face and overcome.
For this Ash Wednesday, start by spending time to think deeply about the “whole picture,” so that for the days wey dey come, you fit focus on every detail of the time wey Jesus spend for desert. Reflect on the main truth say Jesus, the Son of God, take human nature. Then, when the appointed time reach, He freely choose to enter one period of hunger, heat, being alone, struggle, and temptation wey He accept for Himself. Even though e go take our whole lifetime, and still continue for eternity, to fully understand all the good fruit wey His forty days bear, commit yourself to this journey. Make firm decision to open your heart. Make firm decision to do anything wey dey necessary to spend time with our Lord for desert. Know say this journey no go easy, and e fit no pleasant, but e dey necessary and e go bear plenty good fruit if you live am in the right way and do am well. Accept this Lent with all your heart as if na the first and only chance wey you get to dey with our Lord for desert, to prepare for the mission wey God don give you.
My divine Lord, You freely choose to enter desert for a time of prayer, fasting, and temptation. As You willingly accept this moment for Your life, You still dey invite me to journey with You. As I begin this Lent, I firmly decide to follow You enter desert. I decide to endure a time of sacrifice, penance, and prayer. Make I follow You for Your journey, so that I go understand wetin You understand, endure wetin You endure, face wetin You face, and overcome everything wey You overcome. Even though my heart dey draw back small as I approach these forty days, abeg, give me the courage to do wetin dey necessary to make this Lent truly bear good fruit. Jesus, na You I trust.
See also: Reflection One – 40 Days for the Foot of the Cross