CAPG's Blog 

"Did you get the ashes yet? They are giving them out at St. Mary’s at four. If we hurry we can get there on time. I never like to miss getting the ashes, you know.” On Ash Wednesday the lines form in the churches and as each person kneels at the altar rail, the priest puts a smudge of ashes on his forehead and says, “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return.” What does it mean? Is it merely a reminder that we are to die and so should prepare by making a good Lent? Is it also a blessing? What response does it require of us?

Here we have a sign and we must understand it if we are to benefit by it. First we must see the complete sign. It is not just the action of the priest in putting the ashes on our foreheads and saying the appropriate words. An important part of the full sign is our action in going forward to have the ashes imposed on us. There is also the blessing of the ashes by the priest beforehand.

Let us suppose that a remote mission station, to which a priest can come only occasionally, is having its first Ash Wednesday service for the congregation there. What would be the best procedure for the priest to follow? He would preach to the people first, impressing on them the seriousness of sin, bringing them to face their own sinfulness honestly, moving them to sorrow and resolutions to change their lives, and stirring up in them confidence in God’s mercy. He would urge them to prepare for confession and to do penance. He would explain that Lent is a special time of penance for past sins and mortification to weaken the power of sin in us. Then he would suggest that those who were ready to repent and do penance should manifest this publicly by coming forward to the front of the church. There would be a resemblance here to the procedure followed by revivalist preachers, who get their hearers to “hit the sawdust trail,” but the Ash Wednesday ceremony is related to the sacrament of Penance and not to the revivalist’s “conversion by faith.”

When the people in our imaginary mission station would come forward, the priest would take some ashes and he would bless them, saying in the words which we can find in our missals, “O almighty God, spare those who are penitent, be merciful to those who beseech Thy mercy. ... In Thy goodness bless these ashes which we intend to put upon our heads in token of humility and that we may obtain pardon ...” and similar prayers. Finally he would ask each person who has come forward to kneel before him and he would put ashes on the head of each, saying, “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return.”

Has this ceremony lost its impact on us by reason of long familiarity? Let us note again that the sign of this ceremony consists first in the action which each of us performs in coming forward in the presence of the rest of the congregation. It is a public act of humility, an admission by each one that he is a sinner. It is also a public declaration that he is repentant and is going to do penance. It is finally a profession of confidence in God’s mercy, dispensed to us in His Church.

We notice that in the prayers which the priest says in blessing the ashes that God’s grace is called down upon those who come forward humbly and penitently. So the most important thing in this whole ceremony is what is in our minds and hearts as we line up and come forward to have the ashes put on our heads. This is what this whole sign signifies. Our coming forward and the imposition of the ashes signify that we are penitents. It is our penitential spirit and our good intentions for Lent that make this ceremony meaningful.

Let us be more specific. If a man is in mortal sin he should be repentant and should intend to go to confession as soon as possible — that same day or very shortly after. All should examine their consciences and stir up sorrow for their sins. A person may have to decide on definite steps to solve some special problem, perhaps to break from some occasion of serious sin or to remove the causes that have disrupted or could disrupt his family. This may take more than a simple decision, and the person may need to confer at some length with a priest and work out the problem over a period of time.

Ash Wednesday is a good time to get started. For those whose lives are less complicated, it will be a matter of resolving to work more earnestly to root out their tendencies to sin and to be more considerate, cooperative, thoughtful in day to day living. Finally, our lining up for the ashes is a sign that we intend to obey the Lenten regulations issued by the Bishops, that is, the laws of fast and abstinence, along with the recommendations that we mortify ourselves, stay away from worldly amusements and perform works of charity.

Source: Find life in Lent by Rev. Shawn G. Sheehan, 1959