"It is the Lord who speaks: come back to me with all your heart....Let your hearts be broken, not your garments torn (Joel 2:12-13.)" This first reading for Ash Wednesday demands an interior conversion, not just exterior practices of penance, such as the Jewish practice of tearing your clothes or our practice of marking our foreheads with ashes.
God is asking us as a whole people to change our hearts, "Proclaim a solemn assembly, call the people together, summon the community...." Our sinning has damaged the whole people. It is as a community that we repent with all our heart.
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