As we prepare for the Lenten pilgrimage, we brace ourselves for what we might learn and experience through faithful practices that call us back to God. We begin with the smear of mortality on our foreheads, signifying that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

Like matrimony, Lent is not to be entered into lightly, which is why we shudder at the implications. Some of us know this dusty pathway well; others may be embarking on this 40-day journey with hesitance, even fear.

Any time we deliberately seek to draw near to God, we are welcomed — especially when we acknowledge our radical dependence as frail children of dust, even if the light of the Holy presence reveals things we would rather not face.

…When we acknowledge what we have done — and what we really are capable of in our shadow selves — we express tangible grief. In this, we return to self with new insight, which is also a returning to God. Acknowledging our sin requires humility and facing those things within that betray is a stringent moral habit.

…As the wilderness of Lent beckons, the focus must be returning to God so that we might be renewed in our love.