Thanks for the read. The bullet to the brain and the ashes in the shape of a cross also remind me that most, if not all sins, begin in our mind. To have a successful Lent (that is, making true atonement for our sins) really begins in our minds and hearts. No doubt, the struggle is real, but as the great Dom Gueranger said of this season of repentence:

The Christian should, therefore, during Lent, study to excite himself to repentance of heart, and look upon it as the essential foundation of all his Lenten exercises. Nevertheless, he must remember that this spiritual penance would be a mere delusion, were he not to practice mortification of the body. Let him study the example given him by his Saviour, who grieves, indeed, and weeps over our sins; but He also expiates them by His bodily sufferings. Hence it is that the Church, the infallible interpreter of her divine Master’s will, tells us that the repentance of our heart will not be accepted by God, unless it be accompanied by fasting and abstinence.