Ash Wednesday - February 18 2026

 Join us for Ash Wednesday service on February 18th at 7:00pm.

The service will include Holy Communion





Ash Wednesday begins the 40 days of Lent. Symbolically this 40 day period, not counting Sundays, parallels Christ’s 40-day retreat into the wilderness. Rightly understood, the use of ashes at the beginning of lent is an ancient and meaningful tradition, with roots going back to Bible times. Even Christ refers to ashes (Matthew 11:21). Until about the year 100 the wearing of sackcloth and ashes was a sign of repentance for a gross and public sin – a murder, or unfaithfulness, or armed robbery.

 

Lent was the time when those who were guilty of public and serious sin publicly repented. This ceremony was even more austere than the one for the catechumens.  Wearing coarse clothing, going barefoot, fasting, living in confinement (in a monastery or cave), the penitents, one by one, were led into the church, sprinkled with holy water, and touched with ashes. Then they read the seven penitential psalms.

 

At the time of the Crusades the use of ashes became popular for all the faithful, not just for public penitents. Even the priests were marked on the forehead with ashes, often in the form of a cross. The ashes usually came from the burning of the year-old palms, saved from Palm Sunday. Today, receiving the cross-shaped “smudge” reminds us that we are dust and is a public statement of repentance.

 

Lent remains a time for us to examine our lives, preparing for Holy Week and Easter. On the day of Christ’s resurrection we celebrate our baptism, for baptism joins all of God’s people with the death and victorious resurrection of our Lord.


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