Ash Wednesday Calls us to Turn Away from Sin and Be Faithful to the Gospel
In an age drunk on self worship, a reminder of the brevity of our days should draw us to our knees. From there we can look up at the Cross which bridges heaven and earth.
Who needs Lent? We do. If we enter into Lent with our entire person, it can draw us into a deeper embrace of the power of the Resurrection, beginning right now.Liturgy is the "work" (that is what the word means) of the faithful. Lent is a powerful liturgical season. However, to borrow an adage from the recovery movement, it "only works if you work it". With its practices of piety, asceticism and extended prayer and worship, it challenges us to "turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel".
PrintCHESAPEAKE (Catholic Online) - On Ash Wednesday, I have the privilege as an ordinary minister alongside of the Priest, to administer the ashes to the faithful who come forward to identify themselves as pilgrims on the 40 day journey of repentance and conversion known as "Lent".
The Ordo offers two exhortations to be said by the Priest or the Deacon as the Ashes, the burnt Palms from the prior years Passion/Palm Sunday, are rubbed into the penitent's forehead. "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel" or "Remember you are dust and to dust you will return".
They serve as a sign of our committment to repentance and conversion. Being marked with those ashes begins the Season of Lent. It continues for forty days until the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.
During these forty days the Lord Jesus Christ invites us to walk with Him on the Way of the Cross. This simple but solemn Ash Wednesday service is an invitation every year to those who have eyes to comprehend its opportunity. It is up to us to accept it and open its potential through our response, our free choice, to participate in its potential.
To an age enamored with false concepts of "choice" the Catholic Church rightly insists that some "choices" are always and everywhere wrong. She teaches that what is chosen not only affects the world - but changes the "chooser." These words from Saint Gregory of Nyssa, quoted in the Catechism as well as in Blessed John Paul II's Encyclical Letter, "The Splendor of Truth", give some insights concerning our choices:
"Now, human life is always subject to change: it needs to be born ever anew.but here birth does not come about by a foreign intervention, as is the case with bodily beings, it is the result of a free choice. Thus we are in a certain way our own parents, creating ourselves as we will, by our decisions."
Freedom has consequences - and our choices not only affect the world around us, they change us - make us to become the persons we become. The capacity to make choices is what makes us human persons. It reflects the "Imago Dei," the Image of God, present within every human person.
As the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council wrote in their wonderful document on the Mission of the Church in the Modern World, "Authentic freedom is an outstanding manifestation of the divine image within man." (Gaudium et Spes, "Joy and Hope," 17).
The Catechism also addresses the sobering implications of the exercise human freedom when it reminds us that "Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself." (CCC, 1861.) In other words, what we choose truly matters. Authentic Human Freedom cannot be realized in decisions made against God and against the Natural Law.
Authentic freedom has a moral constitution. It must be exercised in reference to the truth concerning the human person, the family, our obligations in solidarity to one another and the common good. That is why the fullness of authentic human freedom is ultimately found in a relationship with the God who is its source and who alone can set us free. Because of the effects of sin, our freedom has been fractured. Only the splint of the Cross can restore it.
In his encyclical letter on Faith and Reason, Blessed John Paul wrote: "It is not just that freedom is part of the act of faith: it is absolutely required. Indeed, it is faith that allows individuals to give consummate expression to their own freedom. Put differently, freedom is not realized in decisions made against God."
"For how could it be an exercise of true freedom to refuse to be open to the very reality which enables our self-realization? Men and women can accomplish no more important act in their lives than the act of faith; it is here that freedom reaches the certainty of truth and chooses to live in that truth." (Fides et Ratio # 13)
Choosing the good is the pathway to the realization of the fullness of authentic human freedom. Again the Catechism of the Catholic Church is helpful "The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin." (Cf. Rom 6:17) (CCC 1733)
Ash Wednesday begins a period of protracted prayer, penance, meditation and ascetical practices(acts befitting our true repentance) which is called "Lent", a word which is derived from the "lengthening" of the hours of the day every year. It is no accident that Lent falls in this transition time in the seasons, when we move from the barrenness of winter with its long periods of darkness into the verdant new life and longer days of sunshine we call spring.
Our Baptism calls us to live in a naturally supernatural manner. The Church as mother and teacher often uses the symbols of nature to point ...
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Good Friday
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On Good Friday, the entire Church fixes her gaze on the Cross at Calvary. Each member of the Church tries to understand at what cost Christ has won our redemption.
The Cross
In the symbol of the Cross we can see the magnitude of the human tragedy, the ravages of original sin, and the infinite love of God. Learn More
Ash Wednesday
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Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday, through which we attain redemption.
The Ashes
The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. The ashes are christened with Holy Water and are scented by exposure to incense. Learn More
Stations of the Cross
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Stations of the Cross refers to the depiction of the final hours (or Passion) of Jesus, and the devotion commemorating the Passion.
Opening Prayer
ACT OF CONTRITION. O my God, my Redeemer, behold me here at Thy feet. From the bottom of my heart... Pray the Stations
Fasting & Abstinence
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'Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed' Lk. 5:35
Abstinence. The law of abstinence requires a Catholic 14 years of age until death to abstain from eating meat on Fridays in honor of the Passion of Jesus on Good Friday. Salt and freshwater species of fish, amphibians, reptiles and shellfish are permitted.
Fasting. The law of fasting requires a Catholic from the 18th Birthday (Canon 97) to the 59th Birthday (i.e. the beginning of the 60th year, a year which will be completed on the 60th birthday) to reduce the amount of food eaten from normal. The Church defines this as one meal a day, and two smaller meals which if added together would not exceed the main meal.
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The word of GOD is to freedom, in the "maintaining & sustaining" to the life even unto eternal. Disobeying or going against the word is sin which is death, that came unto man from the beginning, to which solution is The Christ off GOD. "The Resurrection" so as to live in Him, die In Him & be Resurrected in Him to GOD, as the only way, for the simple reason that Jesus Christ is the only one who has been Resurrected, to Resurrect in His Resurrection, all coming in the grace from GOD. To understand it better, compare this to the reincarnation of the pagan belief, living many life's to attain Nirvana, paying for the sins in each life to be free from it, which is by 'own works", again impossible not knowing each life one lives, to work away previous sins & considering today's sinful time will only lead to accumulating it, which makes this Nirvana not to GOD, for sin is out of bounds with Him, since HE is life, its GOD. Sin does exhibit itself in the name of Freedom, the freedom to indulge, but against the word, like in Idolatry, signified in hiding behind idols to its Idolatrous ways in its many avatars into making the freedom to do the desires of the flesh to sin & its accumulations which is really what paganism is about & to this the Bible tells of Israel as "Worship of god through idols". It is against all this in the Truth, that Christ was sent so that by His Death & Resurrection, man be redeemed, to GOD & Lent is the time to clearly reflect upon all of this.
Truely great i went 2 mass early morning recieved ash's & blessed sacrament listened to the word.But after reading this i am reminded what the ash's are mean't for.we tend to just do it as routin so thankyou
Don't like the loud, deep playing videos that play automatically on your web site. I realize this is ad revenue but when at work, and others are around, and I'm trying to escape for 2-3 minutes and read something Catholic, this loud sound makes everyone look at my screen and they see in huge letters CATHOLIC, which screams 'he's not working.' Well, so I took a 2-3 minute escape. So, I would say eliminate the autoplay videos.
I think the article it great, but is missing the message of pennance. We need to take advantage of the sacrament of reconcilitation in this time. Fasting and abstinence are nice, but do not provide the same level of grace we can achieve through confesssion, not can they perform their supernatural grace if someone is truly living in original sin. I think it is also a time each year, to make sure we clearly understand where we come from (creation) and what we are hear for (redemption) and where we are going (sanctification). To live with the Lord in heaven. But we can't get to heaven, we can't get our journey on the proper path, unless we start with the beginning, with creation, with the trinity and God's love. The pattern of the Catechism is no accident either. Salvation history, the CCC says, does not start with Abraham, we most popularly like to think, but with the beginning of creation itself.
I think we need to refrain from making reference to the days getting longer and brighter on our way to Easter. This shows a lack of understand for our brothers and sisters who live south of the equator, who's days are getting shorter and darker. These analagies, while nice, are simply not accurate to how God has created the world. There are clues to our salvation through His creation so pointing out somethign that is in complete oppositon for 50% of the globe seems strange to me. Many make these sorts of, what I would consider, failed analogies, inconsistent with God's creation. (located in one of the earlier paragraphs)
to me reading the article has been like attending the ash Wednesday mass. I am in place where I could not attend this important mass.
Regards
Alfred
Deacon, there is great strength and power in your words. You explain concepts clearly and with great love of God, urging us to follow Christ Whom we cannot fathom. However, Our Lord does not ask us to understand Him, but to love Him, "Simon...do you love Me?" And since we are so helpless, He comes to us, helps us. Thank you for stating so powerfully the meaning of Lent.
The message has depth and is uplifting at the same time. It is educational and informative.
Thank you.