Ash Wednesday

Info: One of the largest attended service days in the Catholic Church!  Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and abstinence. 

Thumbs:  On Ash Wednesday, a priest will dip his thumbs into ashes made the day before. (see previous blog…right thumbs!!!) and mark the foreheads of those who come forward

Shape of the Cross: Ezekiel 9:4  Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”   

 “Mark” is translated “Tav” and is one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and in ancient script it looked like the Greek letter chi, which happens to be two crossed lines (like an "x") and which happens to be the first letter in the word "Christ" in Greek Christos. (my brother says  but in biblical Hebrew, it doesn’t really look so much like an X (this is the letter - t) So there you go.

Began in:  As early as the sixth century, the Spanish Mozarabic rite called for marking “gravely ill person” on the forehead with ashes.  I like this as a reminder when I begin to think I’ve got it all together that I am a “gravely ill person”

Scriptures: Put on sackcloth, my people, and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. Jeremiah 6:26.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?  Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?  Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?  Isaiah 58:5.

So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. Daniel 9:3.

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.  Jonah 3:6

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  Matthew 11:21

Bonus Points:  In Ireland, Ash Wednesday is National No Smoking Day.   The date was chosen because quitting smoking ties in with giving up luxury for lent.  In the UK, No Smoking Daywas held for the first time on Ash Wednesday 1984, but is now fixed as the second Wednesday in March.  I give them 5700 extra bonus points for making the most !!!

Symbol of Remembrance and Repentance:

• We need “clean hands and pure heart”
• We need confession of sin and selfishness
• We need to turn from our sin
• We need to remember who we are – and who Christ is – and why He had to come – and came
• We need to remember who we are – dust in the wind
• great scripture – Genesis 3:19
• great Kansas tune! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH2w6Oxx0kQ
• great line from a movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EwaFkPMdlY
• We need to remember that we are together in this
• We need to remember that even if you don’t celebrate Lent or Ash Wednesday it is always good to realize our great need of a great Savior.  And it is always good to confess and repent.
• We need to remember another great day to take off and CELEBRATE !!!

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