Replies

No work? I guess those babies jump into the water all by themselves.

Nope, nada. NOT a work for that Baby being Baptized into Christ !
All that Baby has to do is be cute and cuddly ! (except for when crying is needed)

John W. Fenton writes that "by the end of the 10th century, it was customary in Western Europe (but not yet in Rome) for all the faithful to receive ashes on the first day of the Lenten fast….

Very nice history- but what’s your point? Christ’s Church development bad?
The Bible wasn’t finalized until the end of the 4th- beginning of the 5th century… 400 years after Jesus. So what’s your point?

Too bad that GOD did not start this 'ritual' but man.

Yes, you are correct God did not start Ash Wednesday per se…
Man, of his Church, started the Ash Wednesday prayer worship (Mass) to acknowledge and ritualize what God started in his creational logos…

”For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Do you feel God disapproves of Ash Wednesday observance, the humble recognition of his Creation that is our mortality?

OT, Would your claim then apply also to the book we call the Bible ?
Because man started that process to collate the Bible, Not God. Man collected, held councils, debated over centuries of liturgy to put together a single reference of 73 books, with numbered verses. (That is of course, unless you're sitting on that secret table of contents of scripture God handed down, outlining a format of how God wanted the Bible to be layed out.)
I don’t think God was displeased with Man starting a book to ORGANIZE those necessary scriptural writings we need to live by either...

You see what I did there?

Yeah; looking in the bible is something needed all right; as long as one has eyes that see and ears that hear.

Yes for sure, though do you not know,
that satan also sees and hears the Word as well,
and Believes in Christ Our Savior as well,
And in the one who sent him?

He sounds EXACTLY that he knows his condition... "...have mercy on me; a SINNER."

Yes – You are correct !
A sinner in need of continuous absolution... and not just in a single moment…
By Jove, I think you're getting it !