Today's readings are here: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022212.cfm
The word Lent comes from an Old English word that means spring, because it is a season in the Church's liturgical year that is meant to bring about a rebirth of our faith/commitment to God. The strange thing is this rebirth takes place through the painful practices of repentance and penance. Repentance is painful because we have to humble ourselves, admit to the Lord, with genuine sorrow, that we have sinned, and return to him. Penance (the Lenten disciplines of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are forms of penance) is painful because it requires some degree of sacrifice on our part. Through these painful practices, which God strengthens us to do, God burns off the imperfections and weaknesses of our faith; so that we might have a deeper love of him and our neighbor.
May God help us this Lent to enter, with hearts full of hope, into the painful practices of repentance and penance; so that, just as the amount of daylight keeps increasing, so may the light of God's love in our hearts keep increasing.
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