My Dear Friends,

At the end of every Mass that we celebrate with our school children, our principal, Sister Rosalie leads the children in post-Mass prayers. The children kneel down as soon as the priest celebrant has walked out of the church and recessional hymn ends. Sister then leads them in the prayer to St. Michael along with the prayer to their guardian angel, and after a few petitions, she leads the children in a short, simple, but extremely profound prayer.

Thank you, Jesus.

For loving me.

Amen.

On this last Sunday before we begin the Lenten season, the simplicity of this prayer is on my mind and in my heart because Ash Wednesday is fast approaching and maybe we need to approach this coming Lent with childlike simplicity. The other day I was talking to a teacher and she said that the prayer above is her favorite prayer “because sometimes when I have nothing to say I just say `Thank you Jesus, for loving me.” And that’s how we should approach Ash Wednesday: fully aware that sometimes we have nothing adequate to say to our God and we should empty our hearts enough to allow the Holy Spirit to pray for us. When we strip everything away, when we expel everything from our hearts that does not belong there and relegate those things to, well, ashes, then we are ready to begin our Lenten journey.

Ash Wednesday is a reminder that we have to burn so many things in our lives down to ashes so that we can freely take up the cross of Jesus Christ as he commands us to: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).”

We hear those words in the gospel at Mass on the day after Ash Wednesday. Deny ourselves…daily! Only then can we take up the cross to follow our Lord. Denying ourselves, our pride, our vanity, our arrogance, our worldly attachments means becoming like little children who trustingly look up to heaven and just simply trust in the love and mercy of God.

This simplicity is also a reminder that as we approach our Lenten journey and think about what we will sacrifice, what we will add, and what we will do, I urge you to keep things simple and keep in mind three things:

• Will this Lenten sacrifice bring me closer to Jesus?
• Will this Lenten sacrifice bring me closer to my brothers and sisters in Christ?
• Is this a Lenten sacrifice that I can root out of my life for good and not return to it this Easter?

When all is said and done, whatever Lenten discipline we take up should genuinely bring us closer to our lifelong quest to become saints. Which brings me back to our school children and two other things that Sister Rosalie tells them and asks them at the beginning of every school day and along with the simple post-Mass prayer above can guide us during this holy season of Lent.

At the end of morning announcements, Sister asks the children: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The children respond in unison: “a saint!” Then she reminds them as they head off to class: “Do your best, and God will do the rest.” Keep it simple this Lent because when all else fails, we can look up at the cross and simply say, “Thank you, Jesus, for loving me. Amen.”

God bless you all,