Day 53: Lenten Season Begins

1.    Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent's way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults. 

The priest, minister, or in some cases officiating layperson, marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes, which the worshipper traditionally retains until it wears off. In some countries, the ashes are placed in the shape of a cross; in others, for example Ireland, there is no particular shape to the ash mark.

The act echoes the ancient Near tradition of throwing ashes over one's head to signify repentance before God. The priest or minister says one or both of the following when applying the ashes:

‘Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.’

-Gen 3.19-

‘Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.’

-Mk 1.15-

2.    The liturgical imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday is a sacramental and not a sacrament. In the Catholic understanding of the term the ashes themselves are also a sacramental. In the Catholic Church, ashes, being sacramentals, may be given to anyone who wishes to receive them, as opposed to Catholic sacraments which are generally reserved for church members, except in cases of grave necessity.

3.    a. Sacramentals are material objects, things or actions (sacramentalia) set apart or blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches, and the Anglican Churches to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these movements of the heart to remit venial sin, according to the Council of Trent. In Roman Catholicism, sacramentals such as holy water, the crucifix are recommended as a means of protection against evil.

b. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the Sacraments as "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.” The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.