It’s that time of the year again – you’re dozing off in class, but you’re consciously fighting the urge to lean your forehead down on your palms. Doing so would turn the cross-shaped ashes on your forehead into an unsightly smudge. A charcoal smudge won’t get you the same recognition as a clearly formed cross. The ashes are, after all, a symbol of your Christian beliefs – wrong. The bell rings. You step into the hall and engage in customary small talk as you head out to the parking lot. What is there to talk about? You glance over at your friend. Oh, yeah – ashes. Today is Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent.

“So, uhh, do you know what you’re giving up for Lent?”

“Umm, to be honest, I haven’t really thought about it. I’ll just give up candy or something.”

“Nice… You think I can give up math homework?”

Over the next couple of days, you carry that question in the back of your mind. What am I giving up for Lent? One day, you decide not to buy tater tots. The next, you give your brother a ride to the basketball game. A week later you give a few spare dollars to a homeless man.

Today is Easter. Turns out, you never really sacrificed anything.

The custom of sacrifices is thousands of years old. God called his people to repentance for their sins. In order to do penance, these people wore “sack cloth,” an ugly type of clothing. They abstained from eating for a period of fasting, and wore ashes on their foreheads to mark themselves as sinners.

Father Patrick Wainwright, MC, acknowledged the efforts of these ancient peoples as external signs of their internal penance. “It’s ugly to be dressed in sack cloth, it’s ugly to be sprinkled with ashes, and it’s uncomfortable to fast,” said Fr. Patrick. In displaying the outward symbol of ashes, we signify our efforts to look inward for penance as well. Fr. Patrick explained, “Internal penance is repentance for our sin,” he said.

Internal penance is not limited to the sins we have committed. We should also pray for forgiveness of the potential sins we’re bound to commit, as well as the sins of others. The sins of others? Yes – even though we cannot repent for others, Christ’s example leads us to repent for those who fail to repent. Dying on the cross, Jesus pleaded, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Therefore, because God is offended by sin, we are called to manifest sorrow for the sins of other people who know not what they do.

 When we do something that hurts someone, we are inclined (by our conscience) to make it up to him or her. In relation to God, this “making up” is called our external penance. Fr. Patrick clarified, “Our external penance is promoted by our internal penance. We naturally want to offer some kind of reparation to God to make up for our sins,” he said.

Isn’t it odd, however, that we are so quick to mend any conflict with those we care about, but not with God? Most of the time, we feel as though a genuine “sorry” to God is enough. The Church reminds us, during Lent, to take that extra step, to offer that sacrifice. “God wants a humble and contrite heart,” said Fr. Patrick. He defined external penance as, “an external manifestation of our contrite spirit.”

The sacrifices we make should not necessarily be useful to us. For example, giving up unhealthy foods to lose weight is missing the mark on the essence of Lenten sacrifices. “Make those sacrifices that you need to make in order to take a step forward in your path to holiness. Whatever you see as necessary for the betterment of yourself…” said Fr. Patrick. If eating healthier is something you need to do, if it is something that takes commitment, then you might be on the right track. Fr. Patrick said, “The better sacrifice is the one that helps you overcome your failures or weaknesses.”

For some, coming up with a sacrifice is not the hard part – keeping it, is. To help remember our sacrifices, Fr. Patrick advises that we should make them specific. Rather than saying we’ll “be humble,” we should promise to smile at, or speak to a particular person every time we see them. Another strategy is to write it down. There’s something about putting words down on paper that makes them real. Make your sacrifice official on paper, like a contract, and keep it somewhere easily accessible to you.

Fr. Patrick’s third strategy to help us remember our sacrifices is change. Put a stool in your room that’s not usually there. Hang a cross at your bedside. Wear your watch on your other wrist. Wear a ring. Keep a small item in your pocket. Hang a necklace from your rearview mirror. Keep a prayer book on your night table. Every time you recognize this change, remember the sacrifice you made to God.

You’re dozing off in class. As you lift up your head, you notice a black smudge on your palms and you remember. This is the mark of a sinner, the mark of someone who is strong enough to admit to their sin, and even stronger to be able to make a commitment to change.