Preparing for Lent: A Reflection on Psalm 90, by Jeannie Ewing

By Jeannie Ewing, Catholic Exchange, Feb. 16, 2022

Jeannie Ewing is a Catholic spirituality writer and national inspirational speaker. …

Lord, you have been our refuge
through all generations.
Before the mountains were born,
the earth and the world brought forth,
from eternity to eternity you are God.
You turn humanity back into dust,
saying, “Return, you children of Adam!”
A thousand years in your eyes
are merely a day gone by,
Before a watch passes in the night,
you wash them away;
They sleep,
and in the morning they sprout again like an herb.
In the morning it blooms only to pass away;
in the evening it is wilted and withered.

Psalm 90: 1 – 6

My paternal grandmother, like many who are dying, wanted one of us to read to her from her worn Bible. The Psalms were a particular comfort to her, and it gave us something to do as we stood by her bedside, helplessly watching her fade from this earth.

Lent reminds us that we were created from nothing, and that God’s breath, His essence, is what gave us life and keeps us alive. Dust and ash, earth and sinew—these are vivid metaphors to sober us when we forget who we are, and Whose we are. …

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