President Trump Issues Ash Wednesday Message

David Martin | The Daily Knight

On Wednesday, March 5, the White House hosted an Ash Wednesday Mass, which observant Catholics were invited to attend. Mary Margaret Olohan, a White House correspondent, wrote on X:

“The White House is observing the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday Mass this morning in the Indian Treaty Room... All who observe are welcome to attend.”

In addition, President Trump issued the following Ash Wednesday message in a nod to America's Christian roots.

This Ash Wednesday, we join in prayer with the tens of millions of American Catholics and other Christians beginning the holy season of Lent—a time of spiritual anticipation of the passion, death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

During the Lenten season, Christians spend 40 days and 40 nights praying, fasting, and giving alms to deepen our faith and strengthen our belief in the Gospel.  Today, followers of Christ wear crosses of ash on their foreheads—a sacred reminder of our mortality and our enduring need for Christ’s infinite mercy and redeeming love.

As we solemnly contemplate Jesus Christ’s suffering and death on the cross this Lent, let us prepare our souls for the coming glory of the Easter miracle.

We offer you our best wishes for a prayerful and enriching Lenten season.  May Almighty God bless you, and may He continue to bless the United States of America.

Would that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops could issue something like this. You'll never see the likes of it. Trump and his staff speak with more command and authority on the Catholic Faith than most of today's bishops. In many Catholic parishes today, Lent has been turned into a pagan fest with strumming, dancing, and all manner of childish deviations to avoid suffering and persecution. Lent is all about suffering and uniting ourselves with the King of sufferers that we may be transformed more to his likeness. Suffering is the spiritual cod liver oil that God has given to strengthen, heal, and purify us. Christ’s Passion on the cross was the greatest book ever written and the greatest sermon ever given. It should be followed by all.

As they say, "Imitation is the best compliment." The way we truly compliment and give glory to Christ is by being like him in following the way of the Cross. Lent emphasizes our Christian calling to give up the world and the flesh and to live for God, but this unfortunately is a bit too much for today’s bishops to understand. Only a handful of bishops - like Bishop Strickland, Archbishop Vigano, and Bishop Schneider - have retained the true Catholic Faith. It is bishops like these who will restore the Catholic Church while most of the others scramble about in a frenzied quest to turn the Church into an ecumenical merry-go-round. Everything today is immigration this and women’s rights that, LGBT inclusion this and DEI that – political rubbish.

What about restoring the Traditional Latin Tridentine Mass and returning to the age-old rule of penance, sacrifice, and prayer?