Dust to Dust: An Ash Wednesday Reflection
More than simply a call to give up creature comforts, Lent invites us to confront our vulnerability and embrace our brokenness.
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More than simply a call to give up creature comforts, Lent invites us to confront our vulnerability and embrace our brokenness.
The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, including sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.
Why is Ash Wednesday 40 days before Easter? What is the significance of the number 40? I know that it is used many times in the Bible (for example, Jesus was in the desert 40 days and 40 nights).
As Lent begins, we hear the words in the first reading for Ash Wednesday: “Rend your hearts, not your garments.”
There’s something about Ash Wednesday that draws us in, calls us to return to sanity, to a change of heart and mind.
Lent doesn’t take us away from our ordinary lives, but rather it invites us to bring a new and holy attention to those activities. This should be the way with all of our spiritual practices. We take time apart in order to return to our daily activities with new inspiration. God will always surprise us with possibilities when we least expect them. Let this Lent be one of those surprises.
If there ever is a day of the year when you can spot Catholics at a glance, Ash Wednesday is it.
Lent is a season of solemn travel—toward God and with God. We at Franciscan Media are with you on the journey.
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
— Matthew 11:28
There’s something very honest about ashes, a symbol acknowledging our dependence on God.
As Pope Francis and Catholics throughout the world did on Ash Wednesday, March 2, Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory prayed and expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine as they are enduring a brutal Russian military invasion of their country.
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