Ash Wednesday is one of the most solemn days of the church year. Ash Wednesday is a reminder of human mortality and the need for reconciliation with God and marks the beginning of the penitential Lenten season.
Worshipers will have the opportunity to receive ashes on their foreheads as a sign of penitence and baptismal remembrance. The ashes are prepared by burning palm branches from last Palm Sunday. In a dramatic way, their use suggests God’s judgment and condemnation of sin, our frailty and total dependence on God, and humiliation and repentance. The words spoken as ashes are imposing, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” were first spoken to Adam after his fall into sin. Ashes also suggest cleansing and renewal. They were once used as a cleaning agent. Thus, ashes imposed in the shape of a cross symbolize both judgment and baptismal cleansing.
In this season of Lent we prepare ourselves to remember our Baptism at Easter as we
ritually “pass over” with Jesus from death to new life.