Today, Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent in the Western Christian liturgical year. Lent is a season of spiritual discipline, cleansing, and fasting which occurs in the forty days (excluding Sundays which are not considered part of Lent) before Easter. On Ash Wednesday, a priest marks a cross on the forehead of parishoners. The ashes are obtained from the burned palms used in the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration. This ritual is blessed with a passage from Genesis 3:19: "for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The ashes symbolize repentance and purification
2 comments:
Shar:
I encourge you to look a bit deeper. It's about forsaking what we desire and turning our heart and minds to God. Jesus fasted for 40 days. He gave up food and in the end his life. Lent is a time we remember what he gave up for all of us. We are called to repent and any choosen sacrifice is to bring us closer to the true meaning of Easter.
Using ashes as a sign of repentance is an ancient practice, often mentioned in the Bible (e.g., Jonah 3:5-9; Job 42:6; Jeremiah 6:26; Matthew 11:21). The early Christians adopted the use of ashes from Jewish practice as an external mark of penitence.
Ashes symbolize several aspects of our human existence:
*Ashes remind us of God's condemnation of sin, as God said to Adam, "Dust you are and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19).
*Ashes suggest cleansing and renewal. They were used anciently in the absence of soap. On Ash Wednesday ashes are a penitential substitute for water as a reminder of our baptism.
*Ashes remind us of the shortness of human life, for it is said as we are buried: "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust."
*Ashes are a symbol of our need to repent, confess our sins, and return to God.
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