This will be my first “true” Ash wednesday since i deepened my faith and re-converted. So i need to know how to celebrate it correctly. Im going to mass today and i need to know all the details, what to do with the ash, how long do i have to have ash on my face, can i go to this ash rite if i have a mortal sin? I really need details. Thank you.
The externals of religious practice, fasting, ashes, etc. are one aspect of beginning the period of great fast, Lent, a time of prayer, fasting and alms giving.
I past times the obligations of the fast were much more severe. Today they are almost non- existent, mere tokens, by comparison.
It is good to observe physical mortifications to a degree of rigor.
It is important to ask ourselves why we do this physical stuff as religious practice. We don’t do it just for the sake of doing physical exercise. It prepares us spiritually for Holy Week. It is not just a time of fasting, but prayer and fasting. We are physical and spiritual creatures. We are both all the time, not spiritual when we pray, or go to Mass, and physical when we go to work and eat supper although it can seem that way.
What we do in Lent is prepare our whole selves, physically and spiritually to commemorate the passion of Christ. We do this at every Mass or Divine Liturgy, but especially in the season prior to and in Holy Week. In addition to the now almost non-existent fast it is much more important to focus ourselves spiritually remembering this time in the desert spent by Jesus Himself, the forty days where He ate no food at all to strengthen and prepare Himself
for His passion and death.
In Lent we are following Him, preparing ourselves to follow His bloody footsteps to Calvary, the tomb and His Resurrection that free us from the bondage of sin.
