This period is said to have prepared Christ for his three-year ministry that would culminate in his arrest, crucifixion and resurrection. Pope Urban II decreed the use of ashes to mark the beginning of a 40-day season of Lent, a time when Christians imitate Christ’s 40-day period of fasting. It was only in 1091, however, that their use was ritualized. How the practice evolvedĪs early as the ninth century the church started to use ashes as a public demonstration of repentance for sins. When pronouncing these judgments, Jesus makes reference to sackcloth and ashes as a form of penitence. At one point Jesus condemned the religious leaders as “whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth.” He called out the hypocrisy of religious leaders who taught righteousness on the one hand but lived lives of luxury and wealth at the expense of the poor on the other. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus deplores the lack of concern for the poor and marginalized on the part of the establishment of the day, as he passes through some towns. This spiritual dimension of ashes is emphasized all through the Bible. This story was meant to demonstrate that God is merciful and heeds true remorse. God was moved by this genuine act of repentance and spared the city from destruction.
Lent is also a time when Catholics are enjoined to do good works, fast and pray.ĭuring Ash Wednesday, the faithful have their foreheads marked with ashes (from the burnt palm fronds) as a sign of penance.In the Bible we are told that when the prophet Jonah pronounced God’s wrath on the city of Nineveh for its “wickedness,” likely because of the worship of idols or “false” gods, the king, in an act of sincere penitence, put on sackcloth and sat in ashes. The ashes to be smeared on the crown signify our repentance from sin, which has marred the grace of Baptism," it futher read.ĬBCP-ECL said the formula for the imposition of ashes "Repent, and believe in the Gospel," or "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return" is said only once "applying it to all in general."ĭue to the large number of people who will come to church for the imposition of ashes, the CBCP-ECL said, enough ministers and ashes as well as the compliance to health protocols must be ensured.Ĭatholics observe the start of the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday. "In Baptism, we have been anointed on the crown of the head. "We have been reminded last year that this option is an opportunity to catechize our people on both the penitential and baptismal characters of the Lenten season," the CBCP-ECL recommendations for Ash Wednesday, Holy Week and Paschal Triduum observance read. But the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Liturgy said the sprinkling of ashes on the crown will remain an option.
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