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Ash Wednesday - Lent Begins

Ashes are a mark of faith and a symbol that we use to begin the season of Lent which leads us to Easter.

By wearing Ashes, we recall our baptism, and our welcoming of Jesus into our lives as we prepare ourselves for Easter. During the Ash Wednesday service, we listen to God's word and bless the ashes which are the burnt remains of the palms from Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday we celebrate the day that Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with waving palms. In baptism, we welcomed Jesus as our friend, our guide, and our role model. The ashes which remain from the palms remind us that even though we may have turned away from God and made choices that have broken our friendship, still we are welcomed by God. The reading during the Ash Wednesday liturgy reminds us that God gives us the time and the chance to come back no matter how far we have wandered from the path of God's love: "You can still return to me with all your heart..." (Joel 2:12). The seeds of our faith and love are sheltered beneath the ashes much like a seedling in a forest: after a fire, the ashes may look dark, sad and barren, but the ashen remains of the burnt trees serve as a blanket and a shield for the seeds buried beneath. These seeds will sprout in the spring.

Lent is a reminder to all of us of our baptismal call.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, which was originally a forty day retreat spent as time of preparation for adults preparing for baptism. The forty days recalled the time that Jesus spent in the desert preparing for his ministry of love, healing and teaching. As Jesus' disciples, we spend our Lenten retreat preparing for Easter and readying ourselves to follow Jesus' call to love.

Wearing ashes is a sign that we remember God's love and our Baptismal promises and we are returning to the hope and joy of God's call.

Ashes are a sign of repentance, that is turning away from sin and evil-anything that goes against God's love. In the early days of the church, persons who had committed serious sins wore ashes and spent time away from the community as a way to think about and heal the wound of their sin. In the Middle Ages, the tradition changed to include the whole community. This change recognized that all of us can forget God's love and friendship and make choices that turn us in a different direction, away from God. The whole community wears ashes as a reminder of God's call and our choice to follow God's way of love. In the Gospel of Ash Wednesday liturgy, Jesus reminds us that our signs of penance are not for making a big deal of our suffering.

We put on signs of faith as an outward sign of our heart's commitment to grow, to love and share.

The ashes we wear are meaningful when they are linked to prayer and acts of love and service.

Ash Wednesday is important because it begins our journey in Lent toward Easter.

Ashes also symbolize death and mourning.

Jesus turned death upside down by his resurrection. When we wear ashes, we remember the cycle of life and death. We remember our God who created us from the earth. We believe in faith that our lives are changed by God's love and that we will share in Jesus' resurrection. So "ashes are turned to garlands of joy" when we journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

As Paul said in his letter to the Romans:

"Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit." (Romans 8:11)