Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting. It marks the beginning of the penitential season of Lent. It is preceded by Mardi Gras, which is celebrated with festivities. Ash Wednesday is one liturgical day that is celebrated by most Christian Churches throughout the world.

The name “Ash Wednesday” is derived from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads. The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations. The leftover palms from last year’s Palm Sunday are burned to ashes so they might herald a new cycle from Lent to Easter.

During the Mass and, sometimes, outside of the Mass, the priest prays over the ashes and sprinkles them with holy water. The placement of ashes on the forehead is accompanied by either the words, “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The placement of ashes on our foreheads is intended to remind us of our need for repentance and of our mortality. The ashes on our foreheads are also an outward sign of our inner repentance.

Thus, Ash Wednesday is a day in which the Lord offers us another opportunity to repent of our sins, to return to him with our whole heart, with prayers and contrition for our sins. We should return to him because he is merciful and forgiving.

Ash Wednesday is traditionally observed with fasting and abstinence from meat in several Christian denominations. The Lenten season usually lasts for six weeks immediately followed by Easter. If the season of Lent is six weeks, why then do we say 40 days of Lent? Six weeks gives you 42 days. The 6 Sundays of Lent are not computed as part of the 40 days of Lent because every Sunday is considered a “mini-Easter,” a commemoration of the Lord’s resurrection.

Thus, if you take out the 6 Sundays in Lent, you are left with 36 days. Then if you add the 4 days of Ash Wednesday to the Saturday preceding the first Sunday of Lent, you have 40 days. The 40 days of Lent is in commemoration of the 40 days that Jesus was in the desert.

In any case, we impart ashes as a sign of our repentance and our turning back to the Lord. Our Lenten ashes also remind us of human failings, new starts, limitations, mortality, and regeneration. Lent is a ‘come back’ time to Jesus.

Our Lenten observances are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18). Prayer helps us to reconcile with God, as we face up to our sins against him and as we seek to deepen our relationship with him. Fasting helps us to reconcile with ourselves, as we face up to our sinful obsessions with food, comfort, and self. By a little self-denial we cooperate with God to control our disordered passions.

If Lenten prayer reconciles us with God and Lenten fasting with ourselves, Lenten charity helps us to reconcile with our neighbors. Through Lenten almsgiving or charity, we face up to our sinful unwillingness to share our comfort and riches with others. By a little generosity we cooperate with God in healing our relationships with him and with our neighbor.

Let us pray. O Lord Jesus, I detest with my whole heart all the sins by which I have offended your Divine Majesty, from the first moment that I was capable of sinning to this very hour. I lay them all down at your feet to be cancelled by your most precious blood. O let not your blood that you have shed for me be in vain! All my sins displease you exceedingly because they have offended your infinite goodness. Hear me, O Lord, by that infinite love by which you shed your blood for me. Amen.