Ash Wednesday
Following Shrove Tuesday yesterday, today is Ash Wednesday, the official first day of Lent during the Christian year and the prelude to Easter.
Lent represents the 40 days that Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness, fasting and contemplating his mission on earth.
Today is known as the ‘Day of Ashes’ because of the practice of having ash rubbed & drawn on the forehead in the shape of a cross (representing Christ’s crucifixion), by a priest at the dedicated Ash Wednesday church service.
The priest and participants from the church congregation intone the phrase either the words:-
“Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or the dictum “Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.”
Anglican, Catholic, and most Protestant and Christians hold Ash Wednesday services around the world. Following the service, participants observe some sort of fasting, abstinence and spiritual contemplation for 40 Days, ending on Maundy Thursday in 2018.
The practice of using ash comes from the 11th Century and is taken from the Biblical Book of Daniel, where ashes are regarded as a sign of Penance & fasting.
The ashes are normally made by the burning of palm crosses. These palm crosses were handed out to church congregations during the previous year’s Palm Sunday service (commemorating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to crowds waving palm leaves in celebration) and given back to the priest shortly before Ash Wednesday.
The priest will then burn the crosses and mix the ash normally with Holy Oil to sanctify and make a ‘paste’ with which to rub on the participant’s forehead.
The Roman Catholic 5-Points of Ash Wednesday.
Father Rix, a young Filipino Catholic priest had very succinctly put that putting ashes on your forehead without knowing or practice the five embodiment of Ash Wednesday was just like putting dirt on your forehead and nothing relevant about it.
What are the 5 Points?
- Repentance; we have to accept our sins, change and not do it again then move forward.
- Quaresma is the 40 days of repentance before Easter, where you give up something you enjoy as a reminder that you are in repentance.
- Fasting and Abstinence.
- Prayers and Alms-giving
- Ash reminds us of our mortality that we came from dust and in dust, we shall return.
