Ash Wednesday — Many religious traditions observe today as the beginning of Lent. In the readings and responses for today’s Mass we hear words such as “Even now, says God, return to me with your whole heart…” “Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to your God.” “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts.” And, "A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me." The season of Lent seems to be about changing our hearts. We are given these 40 days before Easter as a time to pause and reflect on how we need to change in order to become more loving — toward God, others, ourselves, and all of creation. Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can transform the world — one heart at a time. You can find some unique and inspiring Lenten opportunities offered through Operation Rice Bowl on Catholic Relief Services web site. “Behold, now is an acceptable time” for beginning anew on this journey.

“Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel.” With those words, we received blessed ashes on our foreheads this morning to remind us of our sinfulness and our need for repentance and reconciliaton.

Volunteers are the backbone of many successful projects. That was the case today when about 30 volunteers descended upon our campus to help us clean up the debris of broken limbs and branches left by a late-January ice storm. The volunteers came from local parishes in response to a request by Sister Mary Louise Uebelhor, who ministers in two area parishes.

Sister Teresa Gunter helps drag branches to a spot along the road for our grounds crew to load on trucks and wagons. Sister Teresa also helped coordinate the volunteer workers.

Today we concluded a workshop on servant leadership which we began during our Community Days last July. The theme of our "missioning day" in July — "Hearts on Fire" — became the mantra for our sessions on leadership through the year and the focus of our ritual at the end of today's session.

For the keynote address, Sister Kristine Anne Harpenau, our prioress, reminded us that each of us is a light to the nations and that we are all called to be leaders, everyday leaders, by how we live our lives. "Today we recognize and celebrate the everyday leadership shown by each of us and all of us. We thank each of you for the unique gifts of leadership that you bring to our community and the world."

Sister Betty Drewes, director of Ongoing Formation for our community, lights a candle during the "hearts on fire" ritual concluding today’s meeting. While the candles were being lit, we sang: "With your grace, set our hearts on fire; Servant leadership is our desire." (Words written and set to music by our Sister Mary Louise Uebelhor.) Thirty-three candles were lit, representing the 33 deaneries, groups of sisters living together on the missions or here at the monastery.

Today we observed two feasts celebrated by the early Church, the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. As the custom of celebrating the feasts with candlelight processions grew, the title of "Candlemas" was also given to the day.

Rev. Brendan Moss blesses the candles to be used in the procession as well as boxes of candles that will be used in our liturgical services throughout the year.