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ASH WEDNESDAY

Mass and Imposition of the Ashes

DAY OF FAST AND ABSTINENCE

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

———————— The Holy Season of Lent ————————

     The liturgical season of Lent marks the forty days of preparation for the solemn observance of the great central act of history, the redemption of the human race by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, celebrated in the Easter Triduum. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the forty days of penance, is marked with the ancient symbol of blessed ashes “imposed” on the faithful as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting and human mortality. The ashes are made from the palms used at the previous Passion Sunday ceremonies. (cfr. Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, Msgr. Peter J. Elliott)

     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. (Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy)
 

     Abstinence from eating meat is to be observed on all Fridays during Lent. This applies to all persons 14 and older. The law of fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday applies to all Catholics from age 18 through age 59.

  

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