"This is going to be a good Wednesday!" Lent begins

Tromped out across the ice to the bus stop at 6:33 this morning. Usually the 6:42 bus is pretty full but there was only one other person on the bus. He smiled at me and mumbled something., Then he said "you got change for a dollar?" "No," I said, "but I do have a dollar." "That'll do," he repelled. I gave it to him. I tried to start a conversation but he kept on mumbling in his private world, Then smiled at me and said "God bless you. This is going to be a good Wednesday!" Indeed! As I walked from the bus station to Immaculate Conception for the 7:00 am Ash Wednesday service I found that stepping where other people had walked was a lot easier than trying to negotiate the slippery unbroken ice. Just like life....Father Bill led the few who made it (including Neil McManus from our Bible study group) in simple a capella singing in the little side chapel. The Gospel was from the Sermon on the Mount, about not giving alms for the purpose of making it known but to do it quietly, and not let people know you are fasting. Bill then talked about the community obligation to repent, renew and share that Lent represents, and how even the animals of Ninvehe repented when Jonah warned the city. The service was short and very simple. Bill signed us with the ashes and we sang one more hymn and filed out. It felt so right to begin Lent with a small group, and a very simple service with no frills. Outside a woman asked me to lend her a pen and it turned out we had clients in common and she can help me with my work--and she was a friend of Neil's. Her daughter who was there too is in a play at Manbites theater which sounds like great fun...We all had a pleasant chat before Neil brought me downtown. So much community, so many blessings from simple acts of charity, so little need to be original as long as you are walking in the Light. "This is going to be a good Wednesday!" Yes it is!