why are ashes so important to lent?

Question

What do ashes mean and what the Lenten season mean?

Answer 1

+ Lent +

The Catholic Church and many other Christians Churches follow the Biblical practice of Jesus Christ and the Jews in setting aside days where the entire Church fasts and prays as one in a attitude of constant renewal.

By the solemn forty days of Lent the Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert and in spiritual preparation for the celebration of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

This season of penance is an intense moments of the Church's penitential practice and are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and charitable and missionary works.

+ 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)

+ Ash 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

http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0204.asp

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Ash Wednesday liturgies are some of the best attended in the entire year. Some people suggest that is just because the Church is giving out something free, but I suspect there are deeper reasons! Ashes are an ancient symbol of repentance (sackcloth and ashes). They also remind us of our mortality ("remember that you are dust") and thus of the day when we will stand before God and be judged. This can be linked easily to the death and resurrection motif of Baptism. To prepare well for the day we die, we must die now to sin and rise to new life in Christ. Being marked with ashes at the beginning of Lent indicates our recognition of the need for deeper conversion of our lives during this season of renewal.

Answer 3

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty-six days before Easter.

The symbolism echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one's head signifying repentance before God (as related in the Bible).


The ashes used in the service of worship or mass are sacramentals, not a sacrament. The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations and mixing them with olive oil as a fixative.


An ancient example of one expressing his penitence is found in Job 42:3-6. Job says to God:

3 Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have spoken unwisely, and things that above measure exceeded my knowledge. 4 Hear, and I will speak: I will ask thee, and do thou tell me. 5 With the hearing of the ear, I have heard thee, but now my eye seeth thee.

6 Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes.

Other examples are found in several other books of the Bible including, Numbers 19:9, 17, Hebrews 9:13, Jonah 3:6, Matthew 11:21, and Luke 10:13.



The aspects of Lent,
and other acts of penance.

prayer (justice towards God),
fasting (justice towards self),
and almsgiving (justice towards neighbor).

Answer 4

Modesty and humility are substantial or anybody inspite of faith. you will no longer get far on your interplay with others while you're immodoest or no longer a minimum of extremely humble. being in a position and gracious of priase is admirable, yet flaunting fulfillment isn't. As somebody who isn't non secular, I nonetheless experience that folk desire manners and civility in the direction of one yet another, and modesty and humility are area of this.

Answer 5

They're a symbol of mourning and humility: a reminder that we all die: "dust to dust, ashes to ashes"

Answer 6

My friend, cast away all manner of sin; it will make you feel a thousand pounds lighter.

For more pertinent information, click on this web site.
http://www.factnet.org/cults/catholic/re...

With love in Jesus Christ; he is the king of kings.

Answer 7

If you are Catholic they are important.
Only to Catholics.