Importance

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a time to pause, turn towards God in repentance, and grow in our faith. It reminds us to reflect on our actions in preparation for Easter. At our school, we celebrated Ash Wednesday all together allowing us to pause and reflect as a community.

At the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, we receive ashes in the shape of a cross on our foreheads. This moment is so powerful because hearing the words, “Repent and believe in the gospel,” is a call to put our faith into action and turn towards God with our sins, giving us such a meaningful start to Lent.

During Lent, we are called to focus on the 3 main pillars of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and there are so many ways that we can do these throughout Lent. For prayer, we can make time to spend silent time with God and pray to grow in our relationship with Him. For fasting, we can give up a small thing and not eat meat on Ash Wednesday or the Fridays in Lent to practice our self-control and remind us of the biggest sacrifice, Jesus on the cross. For almsgiving, we can give our time, talent, and treasure to reflect God’s love for us onto others, to also remind us of Jesus‘s sacrifice on the cross.

For students, Lent is a great time to grow in faith and relationship with God. Giana Brezinski, a freshman here at Cathedral, says, “This year I’m giving up sweet treats and trying to focus on praying more.”

Lent is not meant to be a gloomy season, instead we look at it as a season of joyful repentance. Mrs.Garcia, a Catholic faith teacher, says, “Lent is a season of joyful repentance. So while we are trying to focus on ways that we have fallen short in order to grow closer to God, we’re supposed to do that in a spirit of anticipation of Easter, which is a joyful season.”

History

Lent has been a tradition for more than 1,700 years. It dates back to around 325 AD, originating at the Council of Nicaea. According to the Museum of the Bible, “At Nicaea, the council settled on the forty-day fast period for Lent.” However, the start date of Lent was not set until AD 601 by Pope Gregory, who moved it to 46 days before Easter, which is also when Ash Wednesday was started. Lent started as a way for people to fast in shorter periods. Now we abstain from meat every Friday during Lent, and we are also supposed to fast from something of our choice during Lent. The forty days of Lent can be traced back to when Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the desert fasting. Just like Jesus during lent we spend forty days fasting and giving thanks to God.

Ash Wednesday has been a tradition for over 1,000 years, and we can trace it back to Pope Urban II. We can trace back using ashes on our foreheads to ancient times. In the Bible, many people used ashes when mourning or repenting to God. Making a sign of the cross with the ashes helps tie Ash Wednesday to when Jesus died on the cross for us on Easter.

Overall, Ash Wednesday and Lent hold so much meaning in our faith. Lent is a really important season in our faith that provides us with opportunities to reflect and grow in our faith.