The Meaning of Lent to This Unchurched Christian

On Wednesday, in Catholic parishes across the world, a priest will dip his thumb into a pot of ashes -- the burned remains of blessed palms from last year’s Palm Sunday Mass -- and smudge the sign of the cross on each congregant’s forehead. Performing this ancient ritual, he will murmur, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The priest will say these words on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, but he will not be saying these words to me.