Ash Wednesday

“Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” —Isaiah 58:6

Many people think that we religious make a big sacrifice by not having a family, and that is true. But that sacrifice and the other sacrifices we make free and empower us to serve and help others. In my case, it frees and empowers me to work with the children in the neighborhoods of Guadalupe, Mexico, children like Bryant who live in houses with dirt floors, makeshift walls and roofs, and no hot water. And that is why I became a sister, to teach and work with poor children so that they could have a better life.

Lent is the season of making sacrifices, yet we do not make sacrifices simply for their own sake. We make sacrifices precisely so that we can be freed and empowered to love God more by helping our brothers and sisters. In this regard, Lent is really the season of doing things for others. During these forty days, we must ask ourselves if we are truly doing all we can to help those in need. Reaching out to the poor and suffering will require great sacrifices of us, but they are worth it, for those are the sacrifices God so desires.

—Written by Sister Michelle Toepp

Excerpted from The Gift of the Cross, ed. by Andrew Gawrych, CSC. Copyright (c) 2009 by the Priests of Holy Cross, Indiana Province. Used by permission of the publisher, Ave Maria Press, P.O. Box 428, Notre Dame, IN 46556, www.avemariapress.com