Vicar's Letter
February 2013
Making sense of Ash Wednesday:
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent in Western Christianity. Lent ends at the ninth hour of Maundy Thursday or on Easter Saturday. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a 'mini-Easter', a celebration of Jesus's victory over sin and death. Ash Wednesday is a day of penitence to clean the soul before the Lenten fast.
Ash Wednesday services:
Roman Catholic, Anglican and other Western Christian denominations may hold services at which worshippers are marked with ashes as a symbol of penitence. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent's way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults and was sometimes accompanied by the wearing of sackcloth and of fasting.
The mark of ashes:
On Ash Wednesday people are marked on the forehead with a cross of ashes. The use of ashes, made by burning palm crosses from the previous Palm Sunday is symbolic. The palms were blessed on Palm Sunday the previous year to celebrate Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the ash symbolises His death on the cross. The ash is sometimes mixed with anointing oil, this leaves a good mark but the use of oil also reminds us of God's blessing and of the anointing or marking with a cross at Baptism.
Traditional Ash Wednesday prayer:
As each person is marked with the cross on the forehead the Minister says, 'Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.' This prayer is based on God's sentence on Adam in Genesis 3:19.
Keeping the mark:
At some churches the worshippers leave with the mark still on their forehead so that they carry the sign of the cross out into the world. At other churches the service ends with the ashes being washed off as a sign that the participants have been cleansed of their sin.
There are Services of Holy Communion with the Imposition of Ashes at St Mary's on Ash Wednesday at 10am and 8pm.
Details of Lent courses will be on the St Mary's web site and on posters in the local churches.
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About the Vicar's Letter
The Vicar's Letter has been appearing in the villages Focus magazine since August 2002.
The Rev. Peter Graham also used to publish The Vicar's Letter in the parish magazine of 1964. Please see the Vicar's Letter area for these.