Ash Wednesday vs. Arrival of the Queen Mary II

The arrival into Sydney of the Queen Mary II and Queen Elizabeth II on Shrove Tuesday overshadowed the start on Ash Wednesday of Lent, the forty day period Christians use for prayer and penance to prepare for the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection at Easter.

The Queen Mary is huge, too tall to pass under the Harbour Bridge. The claim that it is equivalent to a 23-story building must include the smoke stacks and what is below the water's surface (I counted the levels), but the Queen Elizabeth, less than half the size of her squat, enormous sister, is more beautiful and elegant.

Tens of thousands thronged the shores to see these marvels of human engineering, producing a traffic gridlock that lasted for hours. And for some reason the Army's Black Hawk helicopters roared noisily overhead, apparently on a training mission.

I have to admit that the large congregations at St. Mary's Cathedral for the distributions of the ashes on Wednesday in no way equaled the turnout of the previous day, but Lent comes every year and this was the Queen Mary's first Sydney visit.

To receive Communion in a Catholic Church you should be a Catholic, believe in the Real Presence of Christ under the forms of bread and wine and not be carrying serious un-repented sins in your heart. Some faithful Mass-going Catholics might fail one of these requirements (usually the last) and do not go to receive Communion.

However everyone is able to come for the ashes, at the start of Lent, made in the sign of the cross on our foreheads. The priest usually says one of two prayers, urging us to repent and believe the gospel or reminding us that we came from the dust and shall return to the dust.

It is a simple, beautiful ceremony, quite similar to the Good Friday ceremonial when everyone, believers and perhaps unbelievers, comes forward to kiss the crucifix.

The rhythms of Christian life, the return of the seasons of Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Christmas are often submerged by our busy secular calendars, so the days of Lent should be an effective reminder, a call to religious seriousness.

Lent is primarily a time to purify our personal faith and love, through extra prayers and penances. Love means we are thinking of others, first of all the one true God and Christ his Son, but other people too, especially the poor. That is why Catholics run Project Compassion in Lent, where schools and communities collect money for relief and development work overseas.

Lent can be seen as a further stage on our life's journey, where God's love calls us to repent of our sins and to strive for purity of heart.

In ages of faith strengthening of the will might have been enough, but today we need to refresh our faith too through prayer, reading and acts of charity.