Ash Wednesday 2021

Due to the restrictions of Covid19, we are not imposing ashes on the forehead this year. For any person-to-person contact must be avoided. Rather, for the time being, we are returning to the more ancient custom of sprinkling ashes on the crown of head.

Ashes, as a Jewish sign of penitence, were accepted by Christians. They are derived from burning palms from the previous year.

This outward symbol of private or public sorrow, sadness, or penance, is a proof of humility, a remembrance of our mortality, that we are made of dust and will return to dust. The custom of imposing ashes, is a symbolic act signifying human mortality and total human dependence on the graciousness and mercy of God.

In the early Christian era ashes were imposed on public penitents, sprinkled on their penitential clothes.

The distribution of ashes gained popularity as many of the penitential practices once reserved…