Catholics.....?

Question

please explain why you recieve ashes and also do you think ashes are partly necessary to help you gain entrance into Heaven?

Answer 1

It is a reminder that we came from dust and to dust we shall return. No ashes do not get anyone into Heaven. Lent is a time for serious internal reflection and self improvement. We all have sinned and fallen short, we all should be trying to be better people.

Answer 2

Receiving ashes as a sign of repentance is VERY biblical. It is mentioned many times in the Old Testament.

A person does not have to receive ashes in order to gain entrance into Heaven, but a person must repent of a sinful life.

Answer 3

We receive ashes to remind us of our mortality.

No, getting ashes has nothing to do (directly) with getting to heaven. It does have to do with making yourself subject to God's chosen leaders. Obedience to God is necessary to gain Heaven.

Answer 4

Ashes are not necessary to gain entrance to heaven. But they can't hurt.

+ Ashes in the Bible +

"O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes." (Jeremiah 6:26)

"I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes." (Daniel 9:3)

"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." (Jonah 3:6)

"And all the Israelite men, women and children who lived in Jerusalem prostrated themselves in front of the temple building, with ashes strewn on their heads, displaying their sackcloth covering before the Lord." (Judith 4:11; see also 4:15 and 9:1)

"That day they fasted and wore sackcloth; they sprinkled ashes on their heads and tore their clothes." (1 Maccabees 3:47; see also 4:39)

Jesus refers to the use of sackcloth and ashes as signs of repentance: "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes." (Matthew 11:21, Luke 10:13)

+ Ashes Wednesday +

As the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday calls us to the conversion journey that marks the season.

As those preparing to join the Church enter the final stage of their preparation for the Easter sacraments, we are all called to walk with them so that we will be prepared to renew our baptismal promises when Easter arrives.

When we receive ashes on our foreheads, we remember:
+ Who we are
+ That we are creatures of the earth
. "Remember that you are dust"
+ That we are mortal beings
. "and to dust you will return"
+ That we are baptized
+ That we are people on a journey of conversion
. "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel"
+ That we are members of the body of Christ
+ That smudge on our foreheads will proclaim that identity to others, too

With love in Christ.