The time has now come in the Church year for the solemn observance of the great central act of history, the redemption of the human race by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The beginning of the forty days of penance is marked with the austere symbol of ashes which is used during the liturgy. The use of ashes is a survival from an ancient rite according to which converted sinners submitted themselves to canonical penance.
The Alleluia and the Gloria are suppressed until Easter.
Abstinence from eating meat is to be observed on all Fridays during Lent. This applies to all persons 14 and older. The law of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday applies to all Catholics from age 18 through age 59.
At the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed during Mass, after the homily. The blessed ashes are then "imposed" on the faithful as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting and human mortality. The ashes are blessed at least during the first Mass of the day, but they may also be imposed during all the Masses of the day, after the homily, and even outside the time of Mass to meet the needs of the faithful. Priests and deacons normally distribute the ashes to the faithful. The ashes are made from the palms used at the previous Passion Sunday ceremonies.
The act of putting on ashes symbolizes fragility and mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolize that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptized are called during Lent. — Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
The Alleluia and the Gloria are suppressed until Easter.
Abstinence from eating meat is to be observed on all Fridays during Lent. This applies to all persons 14 and older. The law of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday applies to all Catholics from age 18 through age 59.
At the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed during Mass, after the homily. The blessed ashes are then "imposed" on the faithful as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting and human mortality. The ashes are blessed at least during the first Mass of the day, but they may also be imposed during all the Masses of the day, after the homily, and even outside the time of Mass to meet the needs of the faithful. Priests and deacons normally distribute the ashes to the faithful. The ashes are made from the palms used at the previous Passion Sunday ceremonies.
The act of putting on ashes symbolizes fragility and mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolize that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptized are called during Lent. — Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy
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From the very early times the commemoration of the approach of Christ's passion and death was observed by a period of self-denial. St. Athanasius in the year 339 enjoined upon the people of Alexandria the 40 days' fast he saw practiced in Rome and elsewhere, "to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days." On Ash Wednesday in the early days, the Pope went barefoot to St. Sabina's in Rome "to begin with holy fasts the exercises of Christian warfare, that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial." - Daily Missal of the Mystical Body
Prayer for Ash Wednesday
Blessed are you, O Lord our God, the all-holy one, who gives us life and all things.
As we go about our lives, the press of our duties and activities often leads us to forget your presence and your love.
We fall into sin and fail to live out the responsibilities that you have entrusted to those who were baptized into your Son.
In this holy season, help us to turn our minds and hearts back to you.
Lead us into sincere repentance and renew our lives with your grace.
Help us to remember that we are sinners, but even more, help us to remember your loving mercy.
As we live through this Ash Wednesday,
may the crosses of ashes that mark our foreheads be a reminder to us and to those we meet that we belong to your Son.
May our worship and prayer and penitence this day be sustained throughout these 40 days of Lent.
Bring us refreshed and renewed to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter.
We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
Amen.
As we go about our lives, the press of our duties and activities often leads us to forget your presence and your love.
We fall into sin and fail to live out the responsibilities that you have entrusted to those who were baptized into your Son.
In this holy season, help us to turn our minds and hearts back to you.
Lead us into sincere repentance and renew our lives with your grace.
Help us to remember that we are sinners, but even more, help us to remember your loving mercy.
As we live through this Ash Wednesday,
may the crosses of ashes that mark our foreheads be a reminder to us and to those we meet that we belong to your Son.
May our worship and prayer and penitence this day be sustained throughout these 40 days of Lent.
Bring us refreshed and renewed to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter.
We ask this through your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
Amen.