Reflecting on Ash Wednesday (2/18/2026)

On Ash Wednesday, I had the blessed opportunity to serve at Mass and distribute ashes and Holy Communion at Saint Mary Cathedral and at my home parish of Saint Albert the Great. Because I served at two Masses, I was able to use both "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return" and "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" when I made the cross on people's foreheads with ashes.

As I look out at the sea of people in the pews (as I often do during Mass) with crosses of ash on their foreheads, people who I call my brothers and sisters in Christ and fellow sojourners in the desert during Lent and the journey of life, I cannot help but think to myself: "You being here now means that you are able to find and make time in the busyness of your life (if you wanted to) to come to Mass and spend time with Jesus. If you are not already coming to Mass on Sunday, then please come and join us for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to encounter our Lord Jesus Christ in the Word of God and the Eucharist and know that Jesus loves you. Lent is a blessed to come home to Rome."

There are many Catholics who, for one reason or another, have either stopped practicing their Catholic faith all together or stopped coming to Mass but say that they still believe in God. Some received the gift of their Catholic faith from their parents or grandparents but never took responsibility to cultivate their Catholic faith for themselves. I also know several non-practicing Catholics - from family members to friends to co-workers - some of whom even call themselves "recovering" Catholics. Hearing them call themselves "recovering" Catholics hurts my heart to hear. I wonder to myself, was their lived experience as a Catholic such a "drunken stupor" that they are "recovering" from that experience? I pray for them if that was their experience with the Church and Catholicism early on in their lives.

I also find myself pondering a deeper question, how have they been wounded by Catholics in their lives that they are now projecting the wounds inflicted upon them, by the person(s) in their lives, onto our Lord Jesus Christ and his one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I say this, because I once heard a parishioner say that they did not know the Father's love because they never received that love from their own father. Like a marriage between one man and one woman, two imperfect people that God has brought together and, through the graces of the sacrament they received, called to be witnesses of Jesus' perfect love for his bride, the Catholic Church, the Church is made up of imperfect people - ordained and laity. For many, because of their past experiences with people that make up the many parts of the one Body of Christ, the Church, they do not want anything to do with the Church. However, to them, I say, the Holy Spirit protects the Church as Jesus tells us this in the Gospel of Matthew: "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it" (16:18). I would encourage them not to let Judas keep them from coming to Jesus.

In the first reading for Ash Wednesday, from the Book of the Prophet Joel, we hear the Lord inviting us to return to Him:

Even now, says the LORD,

return to me with your whole heart,

with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;

Rend your hearts, not your garments,

and return to the LORD, your God.

For gracious and merciful is he,

slow to anger, rich in kindness,

and relenting in punishment.

Moreover, we hear Moses say to the people:

“Today I have set before you

life and prosperity, death and doom.

If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,

which I enjoin on you today,

loving him, and walking in his ways,

and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,

you will live and grow numerous,

and the LORD, your God,

will bless you. . .

If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,

but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,

I tell you now that you will certainly perish;

you will not have a long life. . .

I have set before you life and death,

the blessing and the curse.

Choose life, then,

that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,

heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.

For that will mean life for you,

a long life for you to live. . ."

Which brings me to this beautiful message from Fr. Henry Cuellar (2/18/2026):

I know that many people sometimes feel like they are on the outside. Like they aren’t good enough. Like they don’t belong. Like they’ve made too many mistakes. Like the Church is for “better” people.

The truth is this: we all belong.

Every one of us is a beloved son or daughter of God. Every one of us is a sinner who needs grace. The Church is not a museum of saints — it is a hospital for sinners. And none of us walks in perfectly put together. We all come in need of mercy.

I want you to hear this clearly: God loves you. No one is so far removed from His love and mercy that they cannot come back. There is no sin greater than His mercy. There is no distance too far for Him to cross.

Yes, we are a work in progress. We will fall. We will struggle. But the answer is not to stay away. The answer is to keep coming back — back to the fountain of grace, back to the Eucharist, back to Confession, back to His mercy. Let Him keep transforming you.

Whatever is holding you back — shame, fear, a past mistake, a complicated situation — bring it to Him. Don’t carry it alone.

And if you need help, I am here. Not to judge. Not to condemn. But to walk with you and to be an instrument of God’s grace in your life.

Come home.

He’s waiting for you.

Fr. Cuellar's message reminded me of these words from Saint James:

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters,

when you encounter various trials,

for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

And let perseverance be perfect,

so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation,

for when he has been proven he will receive the crown of life 

that he promised to those who love him.

And so, to those who have been away from the Eucharist, come home.

10 Things for a Transformative Lent (UPDATED 2/18/2026)