Lent Ash Wednesday Quotes

Lent begins with a challenge to clear out the mental and spiritual clutter and so discover how to live life to the full.

When shame overwhelms us, grace still surrounds us.

Ember Days in the Early 1900s The days of obligatory fasting as listed in the 1917 Code of Canon Law were the forty days of Lent (including Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday until noon); the Ember Days; and the Vigils of Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, All Saints, and Christmas. Partial abstinence, the eating of meat only at the principal meal, was obligatory on all weekdays of Lent (Monday through Thursday). And of course, complete abstinence was required on all Fridays, including Fridays of Lent, except when a holy day of obligation fell on a Friday outside of Lent. Saturdays in Lent were likewise days of complete abstinence. Fasting and abstinence were not observed should a vigil fall on a Sunday as stated in the code: “If a vigil that is a fast day falls on a Sunday the fast is not to be anticipated on Saturday but is dropped altogether that year.

The folks who invented Lent—no, it wasn’t Jesus’s idea—decided that just like Christ’s time in the desert, it should last forty days. Actually, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday it’s forty-six days, so it looks like the first thing someone ever gave up for Lent was math.

When somebody says: ‘I appear to be incorrigibly lazy. I am not tenacious; I don’t seem to be able to finish the things I start’, today he ought to think: ‘I am not close enough to Christ’. That is why whenever we recognise something as a defect in our lives, as a weakness ..., we should immediately refer it to this type of intimate and direct examination: ‘I do not seem to have the ability to persevere: I am not close to Christ. I am not cheerful: I am not close to Christ. And Christ is saying: Come on! Turn around! Return to me with all your heart!’ It is time for each one of us to recognise that he is being urged on by Jesus Christ. Those of us who sometimes feel inclined to put off this decision should know that, now, the moment has come. Those of us who are pessimistic and who think there is no remedy for our defects should know that the moment has arrived. Lent is starting. Let us look on it as a time of change and hope.[15] LENT – THURSDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 2.

As well as those mortifications known as ‘passive’ – mortifications which present themselves to us without our looking for them – the mortifications that we propose to ourselves (and seek out) are called active mortifications. Amongst these, the mortifications which refer to the control of our internal senses are especially important for our interior progress and for enabling us to achieve purity of heart. These are: mortification of the imagination – avoiding that interior monologue in which fantasy runs wild, by trying to turn it into a dialogue with God, present in our soul in grace. We try to put a restraining check on that tendency of ours to go over and over some little happening in the course of which we have come off badly. No doubt we have felt slighted, and have made much of an injury to our self-esteem, caused to us quite unintentionally. If we don’t apply the brake in time, our conceit and pride will cause us to overbalance until we lose our peace and presence of God. Mortification of the memory – avoiding useless recollections which make us waste time[42] and which could lead us into more serious temptations. Mortification of the intelligence – so as to put it squarely to the business of concentrating on our duty at this moment[43] and, also, on many occasions of surrendering our own judgement so as to live humility and charity with others in a better way. To sum up, we try to get rid of those internal habits that we know we would not like to see in a man or a woman of God.[44] Let us make up our minds to keep close to Our Lord during these days by contemplating his most Sacred Humanity in the vivid and memorable scenes of The Way of the Cross. Let us see how, for our sakes, He walks along the Path of Sorrow. LENT – SATURDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY 4.

True peace, dependent on nothing external, and hence wholly steadfast comes from an inner balance between desire and potential.

Those who are genuinely good always doubt their goodness.

The Church tradition knows fasting especially connected with the Eucharist and at times such as Lent and in preparation for feast days.  This tradition has been kept for many centuries although recently all traces of fasting have nearly disappeared in the Church. Only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday have remained but even these two days of fasting have lost their real practice and true meaning.

One of the clerical undertakings that Sidney least enjoyed was the abstinence of Lent. The rejection of alcohol between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday had always been a tradition amongst the clergy of Cambridge but Sidney noticed that it neither improved their spirituality nor their patience. In fact, it made some of them positively murderous.

For much of the early medieval period, Christmas was often regarded as the opposition to Lent – a time of wild revelry before the restraint and piety that started on Ash Wednesday and ran until Easter.

Ash Wednesday is the day that marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day journey towards Easter. For hundreds, even thousands of years, Christians have marked these 40 days by placing an ash cross on their forehead. But as the use of ashes fades further and further into cultural history, if we’re not careful, we can find ourselves going through the motions without fully understanding the meaning. When you read through the symbolism behind the use of ashes in the ancient world and in Scripture, there’s a depth and meaning that will not only help you more-fully enjoy Ash Wednesday, but also help you fully prepare to experience the death and resurrection of our Savior. [Walk to first table.] TABLE 1 - LOSS First, ash is a symbol of loss. [Turn around a large sign that reads LOSS.] When you lose a loved one, you lay them in the ground and say goodbye. You know that their spirit has departed, and the body that remains will turn to dust. [Pick up dirt.] In the book of Genesis, after God makes the first man Adam from the dust of the ground he tells him in Genesis 3:19 the words we sometimes hear at funerals, “you will return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” [Drop the dirt.] What grief does ash symbolize for you? [Step to the next table.] TABLE 2 - MORTALITY Which of course means ash is a symbol of your own mortality, our second symbol. [Turn around a large sign that reads MORTALITY.] Just as you remember your loved ones returning to dust, ash reminds you that you yourself will return to dust. Like dirt beneath your feet, your mortality is ever-present. [Pick up a dried flower, crush the head of the flower in your hand.] Isaiah 40:6-8 says, “All people are like grass… The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” How can ash remind you of your own mortality that you’ve forgotten? [Step to the next table.]