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ASH WEDNESDAY

This Wednesday, 25 February, is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten holiday season, which prepares us for Easter. For years, the protestant church has not been very observant of this holiday, and has tended to overlook it and push forward until Holy Week, which starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday. I thought it might be a good idea to look at Ash Wednesday and Lent to see how they might fit into your personal spiritual journey. Over the next little while, I will provide you with articles on these special holidays.

According to the official doctrine of the Methodist Church, Lent is a season of conversion and preparation for renewal of our baptismal covenant. It is a time of inward and outward journey to encounter the risen Lord at Easter. The start of the Lenten Season begins with Ash Wednesday, when congregations sometimes have special services. In these services, ashes from the burning of the previous year's palm leaves used on Palm Sunday are placed on the head of members as symbols of purification and penitence. This practice dates back to biblical passages recorded in Numbers 19:9, 17; Hebrews 9:13; Jonah 3:6; Matthew 11:21; and Luke 10:13.
In the early church, people who had been separated from the church because of serious sins might seek to be re-admitted to the fellowship by observing a formal period of penitence during Lent. These people were generally sprinkled with ashes or given rough garments sprinkled with ashes as a sign of their sorrow for their sins.
Beginning in the tenth century, the observance of Ash Wednesday became a general rite for the church. The ashes, which were a symbol of purification in the Old Testament, remind us that we are mortal. In many churches the ashes are made by burning the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. Ashes are placed on the forehead, usually in the sign of a cross, in a ritual known as the Imposition of Ashes. As the ashes are placed on the forehead, words such as these are spoken: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return," recalling God's words to Adam in Genesis 3:19.
Typically, persons observing Ash Wednesday and Lent use this 40-day period as a time to put into practice a spiritual discipline or to give up something in their lives that is keeping them from God. For instance, many people set aside special devotion times or fast or set aside special prayer times during Lent. Others may give up something, such as 30 minutes of TV watching or chocolate or something else, and then use that time as an opportunity to commune with God.