Ash Wednesday Schedule: 6:45 a.m. Mass with Ashes, 9:00 a.m. Mass with Ashes, 3:00 p.m. Service (no Communion) with Ashes, 6:00 p.m. Mass with Ashes.
Ash Wednesday is one of the liturgical calendar’s most popular and important holy days. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. Ash Wednesday takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday and is chiefly observed by Catholics, although many other Christians observe it, too. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person’s forehead, he says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.” Alternatively, the priest may speak the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Ashes also symbolize grief, in this case, grief that we have sinned and caused division from God. Writings from the Second-Century Church refer to the wearing of ashes as a sign of penance. Priests administer ashes during Mass, and all are invited to accept the ashes as a visible symbol of penance. Even non-Christians are welcome to receive the ashes. The ashes are made from blessed palm branches taken from the previous year’s Palm Sunday Mass.
A person is not required to wear the ashes for the rest of the day, and they may be washed off after Mass. However, many people keep the ashes on as a reminder until the evening.
