Where did Ash Wednesday come from?

I'm glad you asked. :)

Ash Wednesday has its origins in the early Christian Church – somewhere between the sixth and eight centuries. Originally, the idea was that a Christian, as a sign of repentance, would sprinkle ashes on his or her head.  In the Bible, ashes were always associated with humility and mortality, fasting and remorse. If you had sinned against God, and you felt remorse about that sin, and you were repenting of that sin, then sometimes, in the Bible, you would sprinkle ashes on your head as a sign of sorrow and repentance. Ashes were supposed to remind you that you were mortal, that you will eventually become ashes after you die. We’re only ashes, and we need to repent of our sins now while God gives us a time of grace. 

During 6th or 7th centuries, Christian churches thought about this idea. Sometimes, in private, people would sprinkle ashes on themselves as a sign of repentance. Eventually, this became a public practice. Instead of sprinkling the ashes on your head, the ashes would be rubbed onto the forehead in the shape of a cross. It was a sign of repentance, and a reminder of your baptism, when the sign of the cross was placed on you with water and the Word. The ashes would actually be taken from the palm branches from Palm Sunday, burned the year before.

As you think of the ashes on your head, you might think how Christians have done this as a remembrance of sins for hundreds of years. 

So how do we begin preparing our hearts for Ash Wednesday and the walk through what we call, Lent?

One way is through prayer.

Throughout the entire Christian scriptures, we hear generations praying, the same prayer: Lord, have mercy...
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• The Psalm writers and the Tax Collector...
• The Cannanite Woman and the Blind Bartimaeus...
• The crowds of people lining the streets of Jerusalem as Jesus rides in on a donkey...

They're all praying... crying... begging... Lord, have mercy...

The prayer, "Lord, have mercy..." is still echoed today. And, every generation finishes the prayer with a specific subject.

This week, it's appropriate that we pray, Lord, have mercy on Ukraine and Russia.

So, let's do that together.

In peace, let us pray to the Lord.

For the Reign of God, and for peace throughout the world, for the unity of all, 
let us pray to the Lord. ​

On Wednesday, March 2, I'm going to be taking this prayer a step further and unpack how Ash Wednesday is God making his mercy known to us.

So, let's take a walk together through what we call "Lent".

​Join me here onsite in Tacoma or online at www.oslc.com/lent.

For now, check out this video to learn more about Lent.