With today's Ash Wednesday begins a new era in the church year: Lent, or rather the Lent, as we call these weeks until Easter.
Lent is no time available so that in itself, but we need to be read in conjunction with the festival is at its end: Easter. It comes down this 40-day fast. At the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we should prepare ourselves. Let us in these forty days of St.. Paul admonish us in the reading says that now is the acceptable time, now that the day of salvation are there (2 Cor 6:2).
begin healing hours when we awake and aware than usual live, if we file negligence. Our bodies, our heart and our soul is to fast from all that what makes us sick, what keeps us locked for God and people.
said in that time Jesus to his disciples, "Beware, make your righteousness before men to show, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven to be expected. When you give alms, let not herposaunen before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, to be praised by men. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
When you give alms, let your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing.
your charity is to be concealed and thy Father which seeth in secret, it will reward you.
But you anoint your head when you fast, and wash your face, so people do not realize that you are fasting, except to your Father who sees in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret will reward you (Mt 6,1-6.16-18).
Wenn wir am Aschermittwoch daran erinnert werden, wie vergänglich unser Leben ist, dann will 
die Kirche damit nicht sagen: Es hat ja doch alles keinen Sinn; es lohnt sich überhaupt nicht, sich in diesem Leben anzustrengen. Ganz im Gegenteil, sie will uns anspornen, damit wir uns für die richtigen Dinge einsetzen, für das, was bleibt.
It is in life not just for first career to great prestige, fame, influence, power, all this goes. It is rather to use the time to change the world, for better to shape a better world, or, to put it in the words of the Bible to build God's kingdom. And the efforts are worth it, because it stays!
The Church gives us for this reflection very good way to make a kind of tools that will help us to our strength for the right things einsetzen, nämlich dafür, die Welt zu verbessern. Ja! Christen sind Weltverbesserer - aber nicht in einem utopischen, unrealistischen, romantischen Sinn, sondern die an ihrem Ort, in ihrem Bereich, in ihrem schlichten Alltag anpacken und ernst machen mit dem Evangelium. Das heißt: eben nicht nur einen Blick zu haben für das, was mir nützt, was mich weiter bringt, sondern vor allem einen Blick dafür zu haben, was allen nützt, was die Welt weiterbringt, was meinem Nächsten genauso hilft wie mir selbst. Diese Werkzeuge, die Hilfsmittel, die uns an die Hand gegeben werden, das sind die drei Dinge, die uns im Evangelium gesagt wurden: Almosen geben, Beten, Fasten.
give alms, that means the view for the neighbors and their needs remain open. We often have a very sensitive sense developed for our own needs, for what use to me and helps and gives pleasure. And that's fine too. But it is necessary that we have at least as sensitive to the needs of others.
pray, that means always looking for the connection with God. Living out of this connection attempt. From here, to draw forth ever new strength. In prayer, I get the strength I always re-use. Prayer is: time and again consider what God wants and expects from me. He will tell us directly in the rarest cases. In prayer, but I will stay with God in such a close connection that I feel what he wants from me without having to say it explicitly. And that's why prayer is so important and so helpful, especially at a time when I may be my goals, the basic direction of my life check.
fasting : This tool has lent its name. Fasting should not be misunderstood: It's not about mortification. On the contrary, it is about to take a look at: What's good? this I get an eye for free: What I really need to live and what might be nice, but not a necessary accessory? The conscious avoidance of some luxury, perhaps even real fast at the same time we can be thankful for all the things we think otherwise take for granted. And he makes room for new experiences: Who, for example, during Lent once dispensed on television, has suddenly room to read a good book or even something with the family To undertake or just to think about themselves or to pray.
waiver is not self-torture, but makes clear for new experiences. give alms, prayer and fasting: these are three tools that will help us discover what really matters in life that remains, even if we once turned to dust.
be 
