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Prayer for Ash
Wednesday |
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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.
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Ash Wednesday |
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Ash
Wednesday, officially known as dies cinerum (Day of
Ashes) marks the beginning of the Season of Lent, which falls
forty days before Good Friday. |
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History |
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The Catholic
practice of using ashes to mark the our foreheads with the
sign of the cross started around the 12th century when
people began burning palm leaves from the previous Palm
Sunday mixed with olive oil, holy water and incense, for
ashes. According to Thomas J. Talley, an expert on the
history of the liturgical year, the first clearly recorded
liturgy for Ash Wednesday that provides for sprinkling
ashes is in the Romano-Germanic pontifical of 960.
Although the New American Bible slightly differs in its
rendition, the use of ashes is based on the Holy Bible,
especially the in the Book of Genesis 3:19: |
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NAB:
Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face shall you get bread
to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you
were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall
return.
DRB: Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou
wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt
return.
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The marking
of the cross on the forehead is based on the Holy Bible as
well. In Chapter 9:4-6 of the Book of Ezekiel, the
pre-eminent prophet of personal retribution, he writes: |
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"…saying to him: Pass through the city (through
Jerusalem) and mark an X on the foreheads of those who
moan and groan over all the abominations that are
practiced within it. To the others I heard him say: Pass
through the city after him and strike! Do not look on
them with pity nor show any mercy! Old men, youths and
maidens, women and children--wipe them out! But do not
touch any marked with the X; begin at my sanctuary. So
they began with the men (the elders) who were in front
of the temple."
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the mark X
on the forehead spares the innocent from the wicked from
death. The ashes are sacramentals, not a sacrament. |
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The
Practice and its Significance |
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Ash
Wednesday is not a day of obligation but it is an
important part of the Season of Lent. We, the Roman
Catholic faithful observe Ash Wednesday as a day of
repentance and penance (Code
of Canon Law Can. 1250),
and of fasting, abstinence (Code
of Canon Law Can. 1251).
Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are permitted to
consume only one full meal, which may be supplemented by
two smaller meals, which together should not equal the
full meal. Many Catholics will go beyond the minimum
obligations demanded by the Church and undertake a
complete fast or a bread and water fast. Many Catholics
continue fasting during the whole of lent, as was the
Church's traditional requirement, concluding only after
the celebration of the Easter Vigil.
The cross marked with ashes on the forehead is a reminder
that we are creatures of the earth and at the same time
members of the Body of Christ. The ashes symbolize penance
and contrition and a reminder that God is gracious and
merciful to those who call on Him and repent. The ashes
also remind us of our mortality.
Although it is not required, the marking with the cross is
a declaration of humility, as enjoined on us in the Letter
of James (the slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ)
to the Diaspora 4:10: "Humble yourselves before the Lord
and he will exalt you." |
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