Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday Service At First Christian Church

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Invitation Offered On Ash Wednesday Not Just Verbal, It Is Tangible

... different quality to it. It’s not just verbal; it’s also tangible. The person in the pew hasn’t simply been invited to turn away from sin; they have the mark to prove it. It can be felt, and so will be less easy to dismiss from your mind. Earthy ritual. Allowing ourselves to receive the slightly wet imprint of ashes on our foreheads also constitutes a public acknowledgement that we are far from perfect, but are called to something greater. There is something real about recognising this; often, I think, we are far more comfortable with the idea of our being sinners than we ever are with the notion of becoming saints. There is a grittiness to Ash Wednesday, and this is good. At a time when religion is perceived by many as “pie-in-the-sky”, here is a ritual that is positively earthy (and was even more so in the past when the wording ran “Remember, man, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return”). It acknowledges the reality of our often messy lives. No wonder that GK ...

Bull Head Mountain Beckons On Ash Wednesday

... Trout Hall, Spalding, May Pen, and Linstead. This year, for the second time, the Clarendon Municipal Corporation has partnered with the festival’s organisers, the Bull Head Mountain Benevolent Society, to market and position the event as the premier ‘green’ outdoor entertainment attraction in the parish, a news release from the municipal corporation said. Damion Young, the Clarendon Municipal Corporation’s local economic Development officer, says the local authority believes that the Bull Head Mountain Ash Wednesday Festival not only provides a social space, but is a very important economic venture, not just for the community but for the parish. “The municipal corporation’s association with the Bull Head Ash Wednesday festival is useful in highlighting participating indigenous and small businesses and creating opportunities for networking in the interest of growing the Clarendon brand in the areas of products and services,” Young explained. It is the Clarendon Municipal Corporation’s role, through its Local Economic Development Office, to identify and support existing activities as well as new opportunities parish-wide, which has ...

The Harvard Crimson

... one of those there are many more crying for or lamenting our imagined other halves. We are drowning in liturgies that remind us of our loneliness. Furthermore, for those of us lucky enough to have landed a relationship, the same liturgies tell us that our worth and happiness are understood only with respect to the relationship. In the end, the radio station was right. A 40-day respite from pop culture worked wonders for me. I had never felt more free, more hopeful, or more at peace on an Easter Sunday than I did last year. That some of my most difficult days at Harvard transpired within that Lenten period only made the result more uplifting. Spending more time than usual listening to jazz and classical standards reminded me of what I loved most about music. During Lent, music became intentional instead of habitual, and the tonal colors and auditory delights of my favorite standards became even more vibrant. In a void created by absent lyrics, all that ...

Church Marks Ash Wednesday Today To Usher In Lent

... Tagle said it would take only P 1,200 for six months, or P 10 a day, to nourish back to health a hungry and undernourished child. “In this season of Lent, we are especially called to imitate the generosity of God, particularly toward the poor and disadvantaged,” Tagle said. Lent, a season of fasting, reflection and prayer, begins on Ash Wednesday. The season leads to the commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter. Ash Wednesday is observed by fasting and abstinence, as well as wearing ash on the forehead as a reminder of human sinfulness, mortality, mourning and repentance. The ash is made from burning the palms blessed on Palm Sunday of the previous year. Fast 2 Feed. Fast 2 Feed is a project that regularly starts on Ash Wednesday. The project aims to combat hunger and malnutrition among Filipino children by encouraging people to fast during Lent and to donate the money they save by skipping meals to the program. This flagship project of the Pondo ng Pinoy’s Hapag-Asa program aims to feed at least 20,000 children for the whole year. Since its ...

The Church As A Midwife

... secular utilitarians hate suffering. They see nothing good in it, they want to eliminate it, and they see themselves as responsible for doing so.” –. We live in a world that will avoid pain at all costs, and to be fair, we’ve all but succeeded in avoiding most of the pain that most of history has had to endure, and as a result, when we are faced with it with have less resources to deal with and endure it than any other society of history. But the way of Jesus has a different take on suffering. Christianity doesn’t believe pain is good or that pain itself can bring us closer to God, not at all, pain and death are the enemy, but they are ones that we can expect in this world. And so followers of the crucified Messiah don’t avoid it. We charge toward it. Confident of the great joy on just the other side. It seems like our shared secular world has two different options for suffering, either to medicate it or to marginalize it. But Jesus dealt with death and suffering much differently than ...

Ancient Tradition Still Thrives In Modern Times

... it as overwhelmingly important,” he said in a Feb. 17 email to Catholic News Service. Humphries said part of the Ash Wednesday draw is the “genuine human recognition of the need to repent and the need to be reminded of our own mortality. Having someone put ashes on your head and remind you ‘we are dust and to dust we shall return’ is an act of humility.”. He also said the day—which is the start of Lent in the Latin Church—reminds people that they are not always who they should be and it is a chance to “stand together with people and be reminded of our frailty and brokenness and of our longing to do better.”. “This practice is particularly attractive to us today because it is an embodied way to live out faith, to witness to Christian identity in the world,” said Timothy O’Malley, director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, ...

When Is Shrove Tuesday 2017, What Is Ash Wednesday And Why Do We Eat Pancakes? Here's All You Need To Know

... Day and this year is on March 1. It marks the start of Lent, where people over the globe give up certain foods or habits to improve their health or demonstrate self-restraint. The fasting period of Lent lasts for 40 days until Easter, but this is without Sundays being included in the amount (if there were counted it would be 46 days). Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday. Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. As the day before Lent , Shrove Tuesday is the perfect time to get rid of any last minute indulgences – and use up any fatty foods. In the USA it’s known as Mardi Gras, which is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’. On this day, people stuff themselves with fatty foods before the abstinence of Lent kicks in. Getty Images. This year, Shrove Tuesday (aka Pancake Day) is taking place on Tuesday February 28 – so get that lemon and sugar (or whatever floats your boat) at the ready. The word ‘shrove’ comes from the term ‘shrive’, meaning to free yourself from sin. In the past, families would be encouraged to clear out their cupboards to remove the fattening foods from their houses. They needed to come up with an easy way of ...

What Is Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, And How Do We Celebrate

... celebrations of fertility and the season of spring. The season of floats, parades and, to put it mildly, partying (read debauchery) leading up to Mardi Gras is called Carnival.  The day after Fat Tuesday, when all the nonsense is to stop and you have about six weeks to try to remember what you did and ask forgiveness for it, is called Ash Wednesday. Ok, I’ll bite. What happens on Ash Wednesday. In the church, Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting and reflection. It is also the first day of Lent on the Christian calendar. Lent last 46 days, and ends on Easter. Traditionally, one will give up something during the Lenten season in commemoration of the 40-day fast Jesus experienced in the Judaean Desert. Lent last 40 days with the six Sundays that fall within the period being non-fasting days. It gets its name - official the “Day of Ashes,” -  because of the practice of rubbing ashes on one’s forehead in the sign of a cross. Why the name Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday. The name is believed to have come from the practice of eating richer, fatty foods prior to fasting during the Lenten season. How is the date for Mardi Gras determined. You better sit down for ...

Ash Wednesday Reminds Us That Salvation Is A Team Sport

... tiro alla fune, “pull at the rope.” That is quite close to the French tir à la corde. One of our English terms is prosaic, “rope pull,” like the German Tauziehen. The other is more provocative, bringing out the essentially communal nature of the game: “tug of war.”. Tug of war builds teams, because it requires a disparate group of people to pull as one. Their individual strengths are multiplied, and weakness anywhere in the line can be exploited. As any camp counselor knows, if you want strangers to begin to rely on each other, to see that they are all in this together, make them play tug of war. Each year, the church has her own version of the same. Ash Wednesday is a team sport. Last time I checked, people were sinning every day. And every day, a lot of people repent of their sins to live the Gospel more faithfully. So, why make a day of it, one that grows more popular with Christians of every sort each year. The reason we mark ourselves this day with ashes, right on the forehead, where everyone can see them, is to tell ...