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Ashes at Sant’Anselmo all’Aventino in Rome. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, Feb 14, 2024 / 10:20 am (CNA).

Ash Wednesday begins the holy season of Lent, which is structured to spiritually prepare to walk with the Lord through his passion and celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Below are 10 important things to know about Ash Wednesday and its significance.

1. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent.

Ash Wednesday begins the 40 days in which the Church calls the faithful to conversion and to truly prepare to live the mysteries of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Roman Missal, which prescribes the ritual for Ash Wednesday, explains that at Mass the ashes made from the palms blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year are blessed and placed on the foreheads of the faithful.

2. The use of ashes developed over the years.

The tradition of placing ashes on penitents dates back to the early Church. Back then people placed the ashes on their heads and appeared before the community with a “penitential habit” to receive the sacrament of reconciliation on Holy Thursday. Starting in the 11th century, the Church of Rome placed ashes on all the faithful who would come forward at the beginning of this time.

3. Ashes remind us of the need for God’s mercy.

Ashes are a symbol. Their function is described in No. 125 of the Directory on Popular Piety and Liturgy, a document published by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments: 

“In the Roman rite, the beginning of the 40 days of penance is marked with the austere symbol of ashes, which are used in the liturgy of Ash Wednesday. The use of ashes is a survival from an ancient rite according to which converted sinners submitted themselves to canonical penance. The act of putting on ashes symbolizes fragility and mortality, and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolize that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptized are called during Lent. The faithful who come to receive ashes should be assisted in perceiving the implicit internal significance of this act, which disposes them toward conversion and renewed Easter commitment.”

4. Ashes have more than one meaning.

The word “ashes” represents the product of the combustion of something by fire. This takes on a symbolic connotation of death, the fleeting quality of temporal things, but also of humility and penitence.

Ashes, as a sign of humility, remind the Christian of his origin and his end: “the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground” (Gn 2:7); “until you return to the ground, from which you were taken” (Gn 3:19).

5. Ashes are made from palms used on Palm Sunday.

Per the instructions of the Roman Missal, ashes are typically supposed to be made from last year’s Palm Sunday palm branches.

These branches are then burned down into a fine powder and, in the United States, are mixed with holy water or chrism oil to create a light paste.

6. The ashes are placed on the forehead at the end of the homily.

The distribution of ashes takes place at Mass at the end of the homily, and laypeople are allowed to assist the priest. The ashes are placed on the forehead making the sign of the cross while the minister says: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

The person receiving the ashes then goes back to his or her pew in silence, meditating on the words that were spoken.

7. Ashes can also be distributed without Mass.

When there is no priest, the faithful can receive ashes without a Mass, but this is not the norm.  However, in such a case it is recommended that the distribution of ashes be preceded by a Liturgy of the Word.

It is important to remember that like all sacramentals, ashes can only be blessed by a priest or deacon.

8. Ashes can be received by non-Catholics.

Anyone can receive this sacramental, even non-Catholics. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in No. 1670: “Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it.”

9. It is not obligatory to receive ashes.

Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation and therefore receiving ashes is not obligatory. However, it is always recommended to attend Mass.

10. On Ash Wednesday fasting and abstinence are mandatory.

On Ash Wednesday, fasting and abstinence are mandatory — as on Good Friday — for those 18–59 years of age. Outside of those limits it is optional. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops explains that “fasting on these days means we can have only one full, meatless meal. Some food can be taken at the other regular mealtimes if necessary but combined they should be less than a full meal. Liquids are allowed at any time, but no solid food should be consumed between meals.” 

Abstinence from eating meat is mandatory from the age of 14. All Fridays of Lent are also required days of abstinence. This also applies to the other Fridays of the year, although depending on the country it can be replaced by another type of mortification or offering such as praying the rosary.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Washington D.C., Oct 4, 2019 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is asking houses of worship to eliminate mercury products, while at the same time saying that restrictions on mercury emissions at power plants are no longer nece… […]

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 19, 2021 / 11:18 am (CNA).- The United States has declared that the Chinese government’s actions against the Uyghur population amount to genocide and crimes against humanity.

“I have determined that the People’s Republic of China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet posted shortly after noon on January 19.

“These acts are an affront to the Chinese people and to civilized nations everywhere,” said Pompeo, on his last full day as secretary of state. “The People’s Republic of China and the CCP must be held to account.”

The Chinese government admitted in October 2018 that “re-education camps” for members of the Uyghur Muslim population had been established in Xingjiang. The camps were first spotted on satellite imagery in 2017.

The highest estimate sets the total number of inmates in the camps at 3 million, plus approximately half a million minor children in special boarding schools for “re-education” purposes. Survivors have reported indoctrination, forced abortions, beatings, forced labor, and torture in the camps.

In a statement published to the Department of State website, Pompeo further outlined his allegations against the People’s Republic of China.

“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” said Pompeo.

He specifically cited the “arbitrary imprisonment” of more than a million Uyghurs; the continued use of forced sterilization, torture, and forced labor; and “the imposition of draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.”

Pompeo said he believes “this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uyghurs by the Chinese party-state.”

“The governing authorities of the second most economically, militarily, and politically powerful country on earth have made clear that they are engaged in the forced assimilation and eventual erasure of a vulnerable ethnic and religious minority group, even as they simultaneously assert their country as a global leader and attempt to remold the international system in their image,” he said.

Pompeo, speaking on behalf of the United States, called for the People’s Republic of China to “immediately release all arbitrary detained persons” and to “abolish its system of internment, detention camps, house arrest and forced labor; cease coercive population control measures, including forced sterilizations, forced abortion, forced birth control, and the removal of children from their families; end all torture and abuse in places of detention; end the persecution of Uyghurs and other members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, and afford Uyghurs and other persecuted minorities the freedom to travel and emigrate.”

The secretary of state also requested that “all appropriate multilateral and relevant judicial bodies” to work alongside the United States “to promote accountability for those responsible for these atrocities.” The Department of State will continue to investigate the situation in Xinjiang, he said, and will make this evidence available to other authorities as well.

The sanctions against those who are promoting atrocities in Xinjiang will remain, said Pompeo.

“The United States has worked exhaustively to pull into the light what the Communist Party and General Secretary Xi Jinping wish to keep hidden through obfuscation, propaganda, and coercion,” said Pompeo.

“Beijing’s atrocities in Xinjiang represent an extreme affront to the Uyghurs, the people of China, and civilized people everywhere. We will not remain silent. If the Chinese Communist Party is allowed to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against its own people, imagine what it will be emboldened to do to the free world, in the not-so-distant future,” he said.

The Trump administration in recent months has cracked down on imports from China suspected to be produced with forced labor.

In August, President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign stated that the treatment of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang amounted to genocide.

“The unspeakable oppression that Uighurs and other ethnic minorities have suffered at the hands of China’s authoritarian government is genocide and Joe Biden stands against it in the strongest terms,” said campaign spokesman Andrew Bates at that time.

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