Alliance for Catholic Education
Dear Friends,
Beginning today and continuing each Sunday through Easter, the Alliance for Catholic Education brings you a series of reflections rooted in the songs of Lent.
Today, Taylor Kelly, the interim director of ACE Advocates, writes about how we are baptized in grace, and in grace renewed, as we sing in From Ashes to the Living Font.
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May God continue to bless you, your communities, and your families in this holy season of Lent.
The Alliance for Catholic Education
From Ashes to the Living Font verses 1 and 2
From ashes to the living font
your Church must journey, Lord.
Baptized in grace, in grace renewed,
by your most holy word.
Through fasting, prayer, and charity,
your voice speaks deep within,
Returning us to ways of truth
and turning us from sin.
How do you feel about receiving ashes on your forehead today? My own comfort with this practice has certainly evolved over the years. Growing up going to public school, I stood out from my peers on Ash Wednesday. I often hoped that my ashes would look more like a cross than a smudge so my classmates wouldn’t comment on the “dirt” on my forehead. Coming to Notre Dame, the practices of Ash Wednesday and Lent more broadly became an integrated part of life (shout out to South Dining Hall for making my Friday fast from meat a breeze!). As an ACE teacher and now working as part of the ACE team, it became commonplace to be surrounded by similarly smudged foreheads and actually receive ashes on my forehead with my students and fellow colleagues. This tradition is so closely observed by all those I surround myself with that I may even get an innocent yet comical question like one that a student from my ACE school asked: “Whose ashes are on my forehead again?”
Regardless of where you find yourself along this spectrum of experiences today, the themes of these first lyrics of From Ashes to the Living Font sung in our parishes and our schools likely ring true with your understanding of this day. Mentions of ashes, sin, fasting, prayer, and charity all fit within my own framework of what the beginning of Lent should look like and sound like. In these themes, I am reminded of housemates giving up chocolate with the anticipation of an Easter bunny after 40 days or colleagues sacrificing a coffee habit in favor of making a donation to their classroom’s Catholic Relief Services rice bowl. However, after a deeper look at these lyrics, we are able to find connections between these words and our baptism as Christians.
In these lyrics we hear about the “living font” and being “baptized in grace, in grace renewed”. If we listen closely today to the readings for Ash Wednesday, we will notice similar themes arising. Our responsorial psalm – “A clean heart create for me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me” (Psalm 51:12) – connects ideas of baptism, cleanliness, and renewal to one another. So how can baptism deepen our understanding of Ash Wednesday?
On both the day that we are baptized and initiated into the Church and Ash Wednesday, we are marked with the sign of the cross on our foreheads. On the day of our baptism, the celebrant marks the child being baptized with the Sign of the Cross followed by the parents and godparents of that child. What a powerful reminder as we come into contact with our students, our friends, our families, and even our own children today that each forehead marked by a cross (even if it is indistinguishable by mid-afternoon) is a forehead that was marked with that same cross by parents and godparents who deeply love that individual. How much more dignity does that give to the “dirt” on our foreheads today? When I see an individual and their ashen cross, can I also remember their parents, their godparents, and, ultimately, Christ present within them?
On the day of our baptism, our parents and godparents and all members of the congregation present also renewed their own baptismal promises by answering a series of questions. One such question is “Do you renounce sin, so as to live in the freedom of the children of God?” This particular promise reminds us of God’s call to be like children and God’s deep love of all children, especially the students that we serve in our Catholic schools. As we begin this Lenten journey, instead of focusing on the chocolate and coffee we plan to give up, or the daily rosary and weekly service that we plan to take up (all wonderful habits to cultivate!), we can instead find time to ask ourselves this same question daily and be able to respond with an authentic and resounding “yes.” It is in this resounding renouncement of sin that we are able to remember that we are “baptized in grace, in grace renewed.”