Ash Wednesday a time for atonement and repentance

During Ash Wednesday services, Rev. Alex Osei of St. Josephs Roman Catholic Church, smears palm-tree ashes, mixed with holy water, on congregation members foreheads, drawing a cross. Carter Haydu photograph

Published on February 12, 2013

Lisa Goudy

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

“We have all this preparation leading up to Holy Week. Ash Wednesday signals the beginning of Lent,” said Father Barry Anwender of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church. “(It’s) the time when we remember when Christ went into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights and he fasted. He didn’t eat or drink.”

He said Lent is the period of time before the Holy Week, which leads into Easter. He said it consists of 40 days of fasting or abstaining from meat, praying and sharing with the poor or others in need. Those 40 days exclude Sundays because Sunday is considered the Lord’s Day.

Anwender said that while in the desert in the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus was tempted by the Devil and refused each temptation.

He added Ash Wednesday has a history dating back to the Old Testament.

“It was basically a way to make atonement to plead to God. So they’d actually sit in ashes ... for a period of time,” said Anwender. “That was usually decreed by the king or the governor of the area.”

He said it’s a Catholic tradition to place ashes on the forehead. He said the ashes come from the palms from previous year’s Palm Sunday that are burnt.

For more information, see Wednesday's edition of the Times-Herald.

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