Every since 2004, many who never wondered about Ash Wednesday have been asking: What is Ash Wednesday? How do we observe it? Why should we observe it? I grew up with only a vague notion of Ash Wednesday. To me, it was some Catholic holy day that I, as an evangelical Protestant, ...
In the Catholicreligion, the ashes used on Ash Wednesday are remnants of the palm leaves distributed from the prior year onPalm Sunday. Catholics keep the palm leaves throughout the year and return them to the Church before Ash Wednesday of the next year. The leaves are then turned into ash...
Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent.In the Catholic observation of Ash Wednesday, a priest applies a smudge of ash on people's foreheads in the shape of a cross. As it is applied, the phrase "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" is often spoken. The ash...
In the Roman Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting. In the sixth century, Christians who had committed grave faults were obliged to do public penance. On Ash Wednesday, they donned a hair shirt (which they wore for 40 days), and the local bishop blessed them and sprinkled t...
This is pure conjecture on my part, but it does not completely surprise me that he should have painted this crucifixion that is at the heart of the Catholic and Christian/Messianic faith. All the more so that these images of the crucified Christ were never seen during the artist life, as...
dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead (Ash Wednesday. The Catholic Encyclopedia)...
This is because it is the last day that you eat richer, “fatty” foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras, a celebration of French origin, has migrated from Europe to the Americas through immigrants. One of the biggest Mardi Gras ...
The reality is that trinitarianism, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, Sunday as the Christian day of worship, Christmas, Lent, Ash Wednesday (adopted around the 8th century perThe Catholic Encyclopedia), eating unclean meats, Passover/Easter on Sunday, and many other Greco-Roman practices were...
Ashes, Too:Last year, on Ash Wednesday — the day Catholic priests daub the foreheads of their flock with ashes to mark the beginning of Lent — awareness of the coronavirus pandemic was just starting to spread. Today, some parishes are preparing congregants ...
As it faded inMormonism, it grew in the Pentecostal church. It can now be found even in the Roman Catholic Church. Sometimes the cloths are anointed in oil or in the sweat of those who pray over it (Got Questions, Material Religion Project). ...