What is Ash Wednesday?

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Ash Wednesday is the official start of Lent. Lent is the fourty days before Easter. We receive ashes on our foreheads as the priest or deacon says the words “remember that you are of dust and of dust you shall return”. The ashes are an outward symbol of our Christianity (specifically our belief that Christ suffered and died to attone for our sins). Lent is a time of personal reflection of our sinfulness and a time of repentance for that sinfullness. In this reflection and repentance, it prepares us for our redemption at Easter. I guess, in short, Ash Wednesday is a call to “conversion of heart”, that we may repent of our sins and be able to accept the wonderful gift of God’s forgiveness and mercy. The history and symbolism of Ash Wednesday and Lent is beyond my limited intellectual ability to explain, but I strongly encourage you to research all of the “why’s” and all of the symbolism involved, and that should help you understand why Ash Wednesday (and Lent) is so special and sacred to Catholics.
 
Jonah 3 is a good OT example of the idea of ashes. The idea is conversion back to God from sin.
1 Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,” 5 ** when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.** 6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. 7 Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: “Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything;** they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.** 8 2 Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand.** 9** Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish.” 10 When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.I know that there is a passage in Job about sackcloth and ashes as well.
 
The forty days of lent parallels the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness.
 
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JoeyWarren:
The forty days of lent parallels the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness.
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Right. I just thought it was interesting that Nineveh had 40 days to repent. Come to think of it 40 days 40 night for the flood too.

I suppose the number 40 has some biblical or Jewish significance?
 
wisdom 3:5:
Right. I just thought it was interesting that Nineveh had 40 days to repent. Come to think of it 40 days 40 night for the flood too.

I suppose the number 40 has some biblical or Jewish significance?
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I really don’t know. Some numbers are repeated 7, 14, and 40. Some of the fourteens have to be figured out by counting the generations from one prominence to another.
 
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JoeyWarren:
I really don’t know. Some numbers are repeated 7, 14, and 40. Some of the fourteens have to be figured out by counting the generations from one prominence to another.
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Don’t forget the number three, very very important to scripture. Three nights in the whales belly, Jesus resurrected after three days, Peter denied Jesus three times. And of course the Holy Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
 
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Mike_D30:
Don’t forget the number three, very very important to scripture. Three nights in the whales belly, Jesus resurrected after three days, Peter denied Jesus three times. And of course the Holy Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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of course :cool:
 
I would reccomend that you go to Crosswalk.com and do a search on the “Ash or ashes” and do a search on the word “SackCloth”. It is a tradition that comes from the Old Testament. And Jesus references Ash and Sackcloth in the New Testament.
 
Ash Wednesday is a “renewal” of our Baptism and a reminder of our mortality.

Normally, the ashes are made from the burning of the Palm fronds which were used the previous liturgical season for Palm Sunday (the first Sunday before Easter). Traditionally, the ashes are also anointed with oil. The Palms signify Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the white horse days before His crucifixion John 12:12-20.
 
Glad to see you are still around, stillsmall voice.

You be well, as well! 🙂
 
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