This act is filled with spiritual allusions and is an important sign of conversion and inner renewal. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, … take not your holy Spirit from me.” We hear this plea echoing in our hearts, while in a few moments we will approach the Lord’s altar to receive ashes on our forehead in accordance with a very ancient tradition. John Paul II also summarized the depth of meaning behind the ashes. This symbolism of repentance is why, in the current version of the Roman Rite, the words spoken at the imposition of ashes may be Jesus’ injunction to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

Most famously when the prophet Jonah preached in the city of Nineveh, “he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes” (Jonah 3:6).Įach time when the people sprinkled themselves with ashes, repent of their sins and cried out to God for mercy, the Lord heard their cries and spared them from destruction. Afterwards, “The Lord heard their cry and saw their distress” (Judith 4:13). In the book of Judith, “all the Israelite men, women, and children who lived in Jerusalem fell prostrate in front of the temple and sprinkled ashes on their heads, spreading out their sackcloth before the Lord” (Judith 4:11). (Genesis 3:19) Adam and Eve are then exiled from the Garden of Eden and are not allowed to return, sentenced to a mortal life.įurthermore, ashes were used by many throughout the Old Testament as a sign of their repentance, asking God to have mercy on them. The prayer, “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” is a direct quotation from the book of Genesis when God is delivering his judgment to Adam and Eve after they eat from the Tree of Good and Evil.īy the sweat of your browyou shall eat bread,Until you return to the ground,from which you were taken For you are dust,and to dust you shall return.

Secondly, the prayer used by the priest to impose ashes on the forehead of an individual is meant to remind us of our mortality and the consequences of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The penitential season begins with the crucifixion and ends with the crucifixion. These palm branches were blessed on Palm Sunday the year before, which connects the beginning of Lent to the end of Lent, when we remember the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This ceremony is relatively brief, but has rich symbolism that is sometimes forgotten.įirst of all, the ashes used are typically created at the parish church through the burning of palm branches. Ashes have a long tradition in the Catholic Church, finding its roots in the Old Testament.Īsh Wednesday in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church is focused, not surprisingly, on the imposition of ashes on all the faithful who attend Mass or a prayer service.

Created from dust imposition of ashes