Episode 052 - Homily | Ash Wednesday Confronts Our Illusions And Calls Us Home (February 18, 2026)

We confront a culture of image and control with the sign of ashes and the call to return with our whole heart. We explore grace over self-improvement, secret practices over public applause, and a Lent that reorders life toward communion and resurrection.

• choosing ashes in a world of image
• restlessness that success cannot satisfy
• return with your whole heart through grace
• the cross as the price of reconciliation
• centering Christ in decisions, money, relationships, identity
• naming subtle drift and numb souls
• conversion as ecclesial communion, not solo
• urgency of now and the mercy of dust
• prayer, fasting, and almsgiving done in secret
• from cosmetic Lent to transformational surrender

Give your complete and total heart to Jesus this Lent

Thank you for listening! Visit us at www.saintaugustinechurch.org