1. Liturgy.
Ash Wednesday begins with the Liturgy teaching the first step in the spiritual life of the New Testament. The life of Repentance. There are two lives of repentance; the Old Testament repentance taught by St. John the Baptist and the New Testament repentance taught by Christ.
The Old Testament repentance, like the Old Testament itself is purely in the natural or human level. The New Testament repentance, like the New Testament, belong to the realm of grace; therefore it is in the spiritual or supernatural level.
Jesus Christ fulfilled, i.e. perfected, the Old Testament into the New Testament. So the Old Testament had been incorporated into the New Testament. Just obey the New Testament and that is obedience both to the Old and New Testaments at the same time. Thus the repentance of the Old Testament had been incorporated into the New Testament repentance. The Liturgy of Ash Wednesday teaches the repentance of the New Testament. This is the beginning of the New Testament spirituality.
2. The difference between the Old Testament and New Testament repentance.
The main difference is this. St. John the Baptists, himself said, 'the Old Testament repentance does not forgive sins. The New Testament repentance, pointing at Christ, is what forgive sins.
The Old Testament repentance is better described as what Catholics usually do when they go to confession: they examined their conscience based on the 10 commandments of the Old Testament, they arouse repentance for those sins, they make a purpose of amendment not to commit those sins again, they confess their sins to a priest, and they make restitution to man and/or to God for their sins, and they do their penance.
Those are mostly physical actions.
The repentance of the New Testament is a spiritual act of virtue called the virtue of Penance. Like all virtues, Penance is a habit that takes some time to develop and man needs the help of grace to acquire. It is the result of a cooperation with the mind and free will.
3. Ordinarily the two acts of repentance go together.
For beginners in the spiritual life, it is better to combine the O.T. repentance with the N.T. repentance, i.e. go through the five steps that is ordinarily done by Catholics when they go to confession but at the same time to make sure they have the virtue of Penance, since it is the virtue of Penance that forgives past sins.
When a penitent goes to confession, the priest looks for signs of the virtue of Penance; only then can he say 'your sins are forgiven thee,' not because the priest have absolved the penitent but more because the penitent has the virtue of Penance. The absolution of the priest confirms the presence of the virtue of Penance. This is evident when St. Padre Pio hears confessions.
St. Augustine warns penitents of priests who do not know the virtue of Penance. Ignorant of this virtue they often absolve penitents who do not have it, thus the penitents become 'walking dead,' i.e. physically alive walking but spiritually dead. Fault of the priests.
4. In case of emergency, the virtue of Penance contains both the O.T. repentance and the N.T. repentance and is sufficient for the forgiveness of past sins. The virtue of Penance is often described as a perfect act of contrition. It is an act of Charity that is built on perfect Faith as shown in the example of Dimas, the good thief.
5. Ignorance of repentance.
The devil knows it is useless to attack souls who have perfect Faith and the beginnings of Charity. So he attacks them before that; before souls can repent. Devil prevent souls from repenting by making sure they do not know how to repent.
When the soul begins to repent, the devil has no power over such a soul. So the devil prevents souls from knowing how to repent. So what does he do? The devil makes sure that those whose duty is to teach repentance do not know how to repent, i.e. the evangelisers.
Imagine the Vatican holds a Synod on Evangelization in the 1980s. Why in the 1980s Didn't they know how to evangelise earlier? Yes, they did not know that is why up to the very present day they are holding meetings on 'evangelisation.'
The Blessed Virgin Mary have to appear many times, from LaSallet up to Kibeho reminding mankind to repent. Why did the Blessed Virgin have to do that? Aren't there bishops, priests and catechist who can do that? None, that is why she had to remind mankind 'to repent.'
6. Mary and repentance.
Mary reminded mankind 'to repent.' But she did not explain how to do it because the knowledge on 'how to repent' can still be learned from the Liturgy, as on Ash Wednesday and Thursday after Ash Wednesday. And it can still be learned from Scriptures, in general, and from the writings of the Father, Doctors and Saints of the Catholic Church.
The Blessed Virgin reminded mankind of the topic, 'repentance, but she still want mankind to go and seek for that ' knowledge through 'lectio divine.' Read, study, meditate, contemplate and pray. Mary does not want indolent children.
Cardinal Ratzinger, in his best seller 'Ratzinger Report' mentioned that there is total ignorance of 'repentance and as Pope during the Bishop's Synod of 2013 he commanded them to discuss 'repentance,' which is the first step in evangelization, they could not discuss it because none of the fathers of the Synod knew what was the repentance of the New Testament. They, only knew the repentance of the Old Testament.
Does that mean that the council fathers do not have their past sins forgiven. Yes, as is evident in the current problems of the bishops and priests. It is even more evident during the Synod on the abuse. They did not know how to stop the serious sins of cardinals, bishops and priests as was evident in the concluding address of Cardinal Tagle. They, clearly, did not how to repent, the solution to the problems of the clergy.
7. Three elements on how to acquire the virtue of Penance, the repentance of the N.T.
The Gospel of Ash Wednesday state that the way to attain the virtue of Penance is through Prayer, Fasting and Good works. Then everybody begins to define those three acts according to the Old Testament; praying like the way the Psalms was prayed, fasting by not eating certain food, and feeding the poor. Those are all good but they are Old Testament spirituality.
The Prayer, Fasting and Good works which are the three elements of the virtue of Penance are spiritual actions of the mind and free will.
8. Prayer, fasting and good works.......are the weapons to overcome the temptations of Satan.
PRAYER is to overcome the most potent of Satan reserved for those advance in the spiritual life. This is temptation to be proud for doing great good.
FASTING is to overcome the temptations that come from the flesh and concupiscence.
GOOD WORKS enables the soul to perform good works properly. Pope Benedict in his 'Deus Caritas Est' mentioned the fact that those in the institutional church do not know how to perform good works properly. They end up doing bad works instead.
9. Prayer, fasting and good works will gradually enable the soul to overcome the temptations of the devil thus grow in Faith and the beginnings of Charity. This three act must be done during one's whole life. In so doing the soul will be able to overcome all the temptations of the devil thus bringing them to be worthy of everlasting life.
