With the season of Lent beginning in a just a week and a half, my calendar for Wednesday, February 18 is marked "Ash Wednesday." It is on this particular day that much of the Christian world sets aside a time to receive ashes. It is on this particular day that the themes of repentance are brought to the forefront of Christian minds. The tradition of ashes going back into the ancient times when people would wear sackcloth and places ashes on their forehead as a sign of mourning. But while there is an appropriate time and place for mourning and grieving, Scripture reminds us that there is a time that comes when we are graced with an exchange - His beauty,

A man may be of value to another man, not because he wishes to be important, not because he possesses some inner wealth of soul, nor because of something he is, but because of what he is - not. His importance may consist in his poverty, in his hopes and fears, in his waiting and hurrying, in the direction of his whole being toward what lies beyond his horizon and beyond his power. The importance of being an apostle is negative rather than positive. In him a void becomes visible. And for this reason he is something to others: he is able to share grace with them, to focus their attention, and to establish them in waiting and in adoration.