Ash Wednesday 2026

Today, Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning of Lent. We begin this season by receiving ashes on our foreheads—an outward sign of an inward invitation: to return to God, to remember our dependence, and to commit ourselves again to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, even when those practices stretch us beyond what feels comfortable.

This Lent is especially meaningful as Farm of the Child approaches its 30th anniversary in 2026 and we are sharing reflections written for this time of the liturgical year from the past thirty years. Each Monday during Lent, we will share a reflection on Lent through the lens of various voices and community members from the past three decades.

We will celebrate our 30th anniversary during the Easter season, making Lent a particularly fitting time to look back with gratitude and to lean more deeply into prayer, reflection, sacrifice, fasting, and almsgiving as we prepare our hearts to celebrate your generosity that has made this mission a testament of God's love and providence.

Our first reflection comes from Alisha Wilkinson-Marrero, written in 2010 during her time as a missioner. She shares how the Cross was lived at the Finca: "Jesus...shows us how to navigate death, not by avoiding it, but by accepting the cross, stumbling, and falling right along with us. Likewise, His example also gives us hope in the Resurrection."