Ash Wednesday

6:30 a.m. – Liturgy of the Word and Ashes
8:30 a.m. – Mass
10:30 a.m. – Liturgy of the Word and Ashes
12:00 Noon – Mass
2:00 p.m. – Liturgy of the Word and Ashes
5:00 p.m. – Mass at Sacred Heart, Campbellton
5:30 p.m. – Liturgy of the Word and Ashes
7:00 p.m. – Misa/Mass (Español/ Spanish)

There will be no confessions today.

There are three major Biblical traditions concerning ashes: repentance, mourning, and mortality, and they are interrelated. Repeatedly throughout the Bible we encounter the use of ashes (often together with sackcloth) as a penitential practice. A similar practice is seen when someone is in mourning or distress. And ashes are a metaphor for human life, which is seen as brief and destined to end in death.

Ashes are the result of fire, the complete burning of something that was alive. They are ephemeral; the slightest puff of air can send them away into nothingness. It is easy to see how ashes came to symbolize fleeting human life or the humility of repentance.

Ashes can represent other things as well. For example, ashes are often used to fertilize our gardens and fields. Ash is therefore necessary to bring about and nourish life. We can now begin to see how appropriate a symbol ashes are for the season of Lent. For Lent is not only a time of repentance, of sorrow for our sins. It is a baptismal season of preparation for the new life of our catechumens and of recalling the new life of our own baptism. We start Lent in ashes, and end it in Easter. What will the ashes mean to you this Lent?