Return to me with your whole heart
Today is Ash Wednesday — an invitation to enter the forty days of Lent with mindful intention. This is a time to empty ourselves of all that stands between God and us that we might be filled with God’s imagination, desire, love and will. We are entreated to pray, be generous and to love and serve others — the hallmarks of living a life of faith.
It is impossible to imagine what our country or our world would be like without the Church’s presence as the largest global humanitarian network. Caritas Internationalis, to which Catholic Charities USA and Catholic Relief Services belong, is our faith in action in more than 200 countries. Sixteen million people in the United States alone are served each year through the compassionate work of Catholic Charities.
Our neighbors who are hungry are fed. Families seeking shelter are kept safe. Veterans, elderly citizens, new mothers, newcomers, the newly unemployed and people enduring the effects of poverty, addiction, mental illness and loneliness are all served by Catholic Charities regardless of their faith, race, age or political party.
This is the Gospel at work. This is what being an ambassador of Christ compels us to do: provide merciful service to people experiencing their most difficult days, who are frightened and depleted, and have nowhere else to turn.
This year, Lent feels particularly foreboding. The demand for our services to vulnerable people is increasing as funding of essential programs and decades-long partnerships with the U.S. government end. We pray for the health of our beloved Pope Francis as each day presents a new challenge to his recovery. We pray for an end to war in so many parts of our world.
And yet, in the midst of challenge and heartache we, at Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Internationalis, will never stop being who we are, doing what we do and knowing why we do it.
Forty days of Lent are followed by fifty days of joyful Easter celebration. We are a paschal people. Our faith proclaims that out of suffering and death comes new life. We are called to be — and to bear witness to — the signs of that new life.
To all who continue to care for the most vulnerable among us: thank you for your compassion, leadership, integrity and dedication. Thank you for making this a better, more just and loving world. Thank you for upholding human dignity, and for being agents of peace and healing.
This Lent, may our days of prayer, generosity and service bring us closer to God and to each other, and may we be a source of consolation, hope, love and new life for all.
Kerry Alys Robinson is president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.