Pope Francis Delivers Powerful Message on Ash Wednesday

The ashes that many Christians display on their forehead on Ash Wednesday are meant to be reminders of our mortality.  In an early evening mass in Rome, Pope Francis delivered a powerful message encouraging people to cast off what he called the “dictatorship” of heavy agendas and superficial needs.

I’m not Catholic, but I am a Christian, and I am so glad to have caught this story in the local newspaper recently.  This Pope is a true humble servant focused on serving the poor.  “My people are poor and I am one of them”, he has said more than once, explaining his decision to live in an apartment and cook his own supper. 

Ash Wednesday kicks off the Lenten season, a period that can include fasting, prayer and works of charity in preparation for Easter, which this year is on April 9.

Pope Francis went on to say that Lent is the time to “drop the pretense of being self-sufficient and the need to put ourselves at the center of things, to be the top of the class, to think that by our own abilities we can succeed in life and transform the world around us.”    He added that self-idolatry is destructive and can imprison us in isolation and loneliness.

And – the most meaningful message to me – he encouraged us to “let Lent remind us that the world is bigger than our narrow personal needs, and to rediscover the joy, not of accumulating material goods, but of caring for those who are poor and afflicted.”  These are the things that really matter, he emphasized.

“Alms-giving (giving to the poor) is not a hasty gesture to ease our conscience,” he said.  “Rather it is a way of touching the sufferings of the poor with our own hands and heart.”

We encourage you to remember the poor in Bangladesh this Lenten season with a generous gift to PSDI.  They can feel your love through the gifts you give.  Thank you.