Ashes & the Cry of our Sufferings before our Merciful Lord

We begin Lent with blessed ashes being placed upon our foreheads. The ashes remind us to keep our mortality daily before us, so that we press into Christ everyday as if that one day is all we have to experience Him and His wondrous healing in our lives. And, in the Old Covenant, God's people would put on sackcloth and pour ashes over their heads. This was always an external sign of internal suffering. It always accompanied the cry for mercy and relief from God. So, we walk into Lent invited by God to return to Him, come to Him. Come to Him with our pains, sufferings, wounded consciences. For He is the God of mercy Who delights in giving mercy to all who return to Him.