• February 18, 2026, Today’s Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET
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Friends of the Rosary,

Today, February 18, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, the solemn observance of the central act of human history: the redemption of the human race by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Lent is the ancient penitential time that precedes the Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum—Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil, before the Easter season, the joy of the Resurrection with the celebration of Christ’s passing over from death to life.

These forty days of penance in Lent start with the sacramental of the imposition of ashes during Mass, a sign of conversion, penance, fasting, humility, human mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God.

The ashes are made from the palms used at the previous Passion Sunday ceremonies.

Today, and all Fridays during Lent, all the baptized abstain from eating meat. We also do some little fasting, eating only one full meal or two smaller meals.

Lent is a time for conversion to Jesus Christ and the deepening of our friendship with him. The human challenge of continual conversion requires the disciplines of Lent: fasting, almsgiving, and intensified prayer.

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
To Jesus through Mary!

Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
Please give us the grace to respond with joy!

+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New York

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Leo XIV