Thursday After Ash Wednesday

NOW IS THE TIME
From a sermon by St Leo the Great 5
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“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation”.
For though there is no season that is not filled with the divine gifts, and though
at each moment we have, through His grace, access to the Divine Mercy, yet
now is the time in which the souls of all mortals should be stirred with greater
fervor towards spiritual perfection, and inspired with greater confidence; now
when the return of that day when we were redeemed invites us once more to the
fulfillment of all our sacred duties, so that purified in body and soul we may
celebrate the supreme Mystery of the Passion of Our Lord. Indeed such
unending reverence and unceasing devotion is due to these sacred mysteries,
that we should ever be in the Presence of God as we now are obliged to be for
the worthy celebration of the Paschal Feast.

But since there are few that have this strength of soul, and since because
of the weakness of our flesh, the more severe observance is relaxed, and since
the manifold duties of the present life take up so much of our care, it will happen
that even the most devout of heart are stained with the dust of earth.
Accordingly, with great solicitude has this divine means been given us, so that
these forty days of reflection may assist us to restore the purity of our souls, and
so that during them we may by good works make satisfaction for our past sins,
and by devout mortification purge ourselves of them.

As we are therefore beginning this sacred season, dedicated to the
purification of the soul, let us be careful to fulfill the Apostolic command that
“we cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit”, so that
restraining the conflict that exists between the one and the other substance, the
soul, which in the Providence of God is meant to be the ruler of the body, may
regain the dignity of its rightful authority, so that, giving offence to no one, we
may not incur the punishment of evildoers. For the sum total of our fasting does
not consist in merely abstaining from food. In vain do we deny our body food if
we do not withhold our heart from iniquity, and restrain our lips that they speak
no evil.

We must then so moderate our rightful use of food that our other desires
may be subject to the same rule. For this is also a time for gentleness and
patience, a time of peace and serenity, in which having put away all stains of evil
doing we strive after steadfastness in what is good. Now is the time when
generous Christian souls forgive offences, pay no heed to insults, and wipe out
the memory of past injuries. Now let the Christian soul exercise itself in the
armor of justice, on the right hand and on the left, so that amid honor and
dishonor, evil report and good, the praise of men will not make proud the virtue
that is well rooted, the conscience that has peace, nor dishonor cast it down.
The moderation of those who worship God is blameless.

5 The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, vol. 2, Henry Regnery Co, Chicago, 1958, pg. 29.