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VATICAN CITY, FEB. 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The cardinal who administered ashes to Benedict XVI today says the exhortations that accompany the rite are not easy to say to a Pope.Cardinal Jozef Tomko, cardinal-priest of the Basilica of Santa Sabina where the Bishop of Rome celebrated this evening's Ash Wednesday Mass, has been the prelate who administers ashes to the Pontiff for the last 12 years. He receives this task because he was assigned the cardinal titular church where the Pontiff traditionally celebrates Mass for the beginning of Lent. Like all Catholics, the Holy Father receives the ashes while the one...

Roman Catholics grow up hearing the words on Ash Wednesday as they receive a sign of the cross in ashes on their foreheads:"For dust you are and to dust you will return."But Christians at many Protestant churches around the city will be hearing those words from Genesis 3:19 today as they, too, are marked by ashes on the first day of Lent, the 40-day somber season leading to Easter.Protestant churches in recent years have increasingly turned to the rite to increase spirituality and devotional preparation for Easter Sunday among their members."There is a trend ... toward more sacramental forms and...

On the Lenten Journey "A Spiritual Retreat That Lasts 40 Days" VATICAN CITY, FEB. 6, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered today, Ash Wednesday, at the general audience in Paul VI Hall. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin again our Lenten journey as we do every year, with a more intense spirit of prayer and reflection, of penance and of fasting. We are entering into a very "intense" liturgical season that, while preparing us for the celebration of Easter -- the heart of the Church calendar and of...

“Renewed in Practicing Your Righteousness” (Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21)Every year the church has a season of renewal, and it’s called Lent. Today, Ash Wednesday, is the first day of Lent, the first of forty days. During this time of year, the sun is getting stronger, the days are getting longer. That’s how Lent got its name, by the way. This is when the days “lengthen,” and so it’s called the “Lenten” season. And just as Lent begins in the dead of winter and presses forward into spring, so the Lord will bring his people from deadness to life, from coldness to...

The change has been slow, yet unrelenting. Since the Winter Solstice, the sun’s setting has daily delayed, if even by one minute, so that journeys and chores once completed in darkness now are accompanied by brilliant twilight. Yet, even as this change in evening’s day length has been progressing, mornings remain as dark and foreboding as they had a month before. Morning journeys and chores are still completed in darkness. The morning darkness has been unrelenting and slow to change. But as January ends the mornings too will brighten. With increasing rapidity the sunrise will advance, first by five minutes...

Ashes Ecclesiasticus 7:40 "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin."    In the 17th. c., a style of painting known as "vanitas painting" became popular (see above). This style included elements that represented temporal bounty - flowers, fruits, etc., and symbols of riches, such as gold and jewels. These gorgeous gifts from God were then juxtaposed with symbols that showed the reality of death, usually a skull, or an hourglasses that symbolized the passage of time. The point of this style is the moral of which Ecclesiasticus 1 reminds us, "What profit hath a...

Back in the day when virtually every Catholic kid and teenager gave up meat on Fridays for Lent, there were always a couple of holier-than-Richie types who took it to the next level. They'd give up Dr Pepper. Or watching "Happy Days." Or listening to the soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever." Real sacrifices of the time. These days, how much of a sacrifice is it to give up meat on Fridays? There are millions upon millions of Catholics who don't even eat meat anyway. For them, abstaining from burgers, pork chops and steaks is about as difficult as giving up...

<p>Three CD players hidden under a cathedral's pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices.</p>

Ash Wednesday2 Peter 1:3-5, 23-25             The Lenten Season really begins on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps your congregation has a long history (or a short one) of marking Ash Wednesday. Or perhaps you have not observed it previously and wonder about beginning it this year. We recommend it as a very rich and meaningful way to begin the Lenten season. To answer questions you or others in your church may have about the tradition, we are reproducing excerpts from articles written by Harry Boonstra that appeared in Reformed Worship 6 (December 1987) and 30 (December 1993). Reprinted by permission of CRC...

by Harry Boonstra Issue #6 Grace Episcopal Church is very quiet when I enter at 9:20. In fact, even though the service is to start at 9:30, I am the only person in the sanctuary. A few minutes later several more people show, but it turns out the big service will be in the evening. (After the soup supper. Ah! even Episcopalians must be urged with food. But during Lent?) I had hoped to slip unobtrusively into a pew in the back and be more observer than participant in my first Ash Wednesday service. But the service is being held...

Worshipers were interrupted during an Ash Wednesday service at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis by a trio of hidden CD players spewing "pornographic" messages from beneath pews. Three CD players had been duct-taped beneath the pews and rigged to go off at 12:20 p.m., Santa Fe Police Capt. Gary Johnson said. An Ash Wednesday service was being conducted at the time, and Johnson said responding officers described the messages to him as pornographic, although he wouldn't go into detail about their content. The cathedral staff found and removed the three CD players, then called police while church-goers evacuated the...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

“The Sign of the Ashes” (Gen. 3:19)Today we begin the season of Lent, forty days, not counting the Sundays--forty days of preparation leading up to Easter. The word “Lent” is related to our word, “length.” This is a time of year when the days are getting longer; the length of daylight is increasing day by day. Just as nature moves from the deadness of winter to the new life of spring, so in the church we mirror that movement from death to life. The solemn season of Lent leads to the joy and vitality of Easter. Lent is the time...

Why is he so strenuous in his defense of the family as founded upon marriage between a man and a woman? He explains why in his message in preparation for Easter. In it, he writes that “eros is part of the very heart of God,� and therefore... by Sandro Magister ROMA, February 20, 2007 – Tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, is the beginning of Lent for the Catholic Church of the Roman rite. And Benedict XVI will start it with a penitential procession on the Aventine hill, with the celebration of Mass in the basilica of Santa Sabina, and with the...

Ash Wednesday - Collects and ReadingsCollect:Lord,protect us in our struggle against evil.As we begin the discipline of Lent,make this day holy by our self-denial.Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,one God, forever and ever. +AmenorFather in heaven,the light of Your truth bestows sightto the darkness of sinful eyesMay this season of repentancebring us the blessing of Your forgivenessand the gift of your light. +Amen.First Reading: Joel 2:12-18"Yet even now", says the Lord, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your...

From the Rev. Canon James T. Payne of St. Thomas of Canterbury REC in Houston, here is a sermon for Ash Wednesday. In this sermon, Rev. Payne gives some of the background for that day, which I had not known:Lent has been part of the common life of the Church since the early part of the fourth century. It reminds us of the forty-day fast of our Lord in the wilderness. Lent is a time of prayer, fasting, and repentance, intended to prepare us for Easter. The custom of placing ashes as a sign of penitence originated under Pope Gregory...

The Rev. Robert T. Ritchie, the freshly appointed rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, woke up at 3 a.m. in his old rectory in the Bronx yesterday to make sure he made it to Ash Wednesday services at his new church on time. "I couldn't take any chance that I'd be late," he said. A few weeks ago, in a move that surprised many in the Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Edward M. Egan moved Father Ritchie, 60, from a parish in Kingsbridge Heights to St. Patrick's Cathedral, one of the nation's most exalted houses of worship. For a priest who...

I do not often write about religion or religious issues. However, I thought I would share this story. As you all know, yesterday was Ash Wednesday. I decided to attend the 5:30 service near my home rather than near my office, mainly because it allowed me to leave work a little early. I arrived at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church about ten minutes early and was pleased to discover that Cardinal McCarrick would again be delivering the Mass. The church was pretty empty, but being one block from the Senate office buildings, it always fills up at the absolute last second....

Christians around the world taking part in Ash Wednesday. It's one of the holiest days of the year. It marks the beginning of lent. The 40 days of Lent are traditionally a period of personal sacrifice and reflection leading up to Good Friday, when Christians recall Christ's crucifixion, and Easter, when they celebrate the joy of Christ's resurrection. Pope Benedict the 16th led an evening Ash Wednesday mass in Rome, marking the first day of lent. The Pope marked the day with a call for people to overcome indifference to the poor and share what they have with the needy....

On Ash Wednesday "A Propitious Moment to Be Converted to Love" VATICAN CITY, MARCH 1, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered during the general audience today, Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter's Square. * * * Dear Brothers and Sisters: We begin today, with the liturgy of Ash Wednesday, the 40-day Lenten journey that will lead us to the Easter triduum, memorial of the Lord's passion, death and resurrection, heart of the mystery of our salvation. It is a propitious time in which the Church invites Christians to be more intensely aware of Christ's redeeming...

Russia's Catholics mark beginning of Lent 16:08 | 01/ 03/ 2006 MOSCOW, March 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's 600,000-strong Roman Catholic community on Wednesday observed the first day of Lent, with worshippers across the country putting ashes on their foreheads in a symbolic ritual of repentance. "In the Roman Catholic Church, by centuries-old tradition Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, this year falling on March 1," Igor Kovalevsky, head of the Conference of Russian Catholic Bishops, told RIA Novosti. "Ashes symbolize penitence and the frailty of human life." Lent lasts for the 40 days before Easter and culminates in Holy Week,...

Tradition catching on with Baptists Protestants begin to take part in Ash Wednesday for its theological lessons Wednesday, March 01, 2006GREG GARRISONNews staff writer It used to be that Baptists had nothing to do with Ash Wednesday, a liturgical holiday they associated with Catholics. No more. "It's a good way of putting the congregation in the right mind-set to prepare for Easter," said the Rev. Christopher Hamlin, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Smithfield. An ecumenical service at 6:30 tonight at Our Lady Queen of the Universe Catholic Church will include participation by three Baptist churches - Baptist Church...

March 1, 2006 Ash Wednesday Psalm: Wednesday 12 Reading IJl 2:12-18 Even now, says the LORD,return to me with your whole heart,with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,and return to the LORD, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,slow to anger, rich in kindness,and relenting in punishment.Perhaps he will again relentand leave behind him a blessing,Offerings and libationsfor the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion!proclaim a fast,call an assembly;Gather the people,notify the congregation;Assemble the elders,gather the childrenand the infants at the breast;Let the bridegroom quit his roomand the bride her chamber.Between the porch and...

Morning Prayer and ReflectionThis is the day the Lord has made.  Let us be glad and rejoice in it! Ash Wednesday You are dust, and to dust you shall return. This is a time to reflect on what really matters. Psalm: Thou turnest man back to the dust, and sayest, "Turn back, O children of men!" For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning: in the morning it...

Vatican City, Feb. 24, 2006 (CNA) - The Vatican announced today that next week, Pope Benedict himself will mark the beginning of lent with an Ash Wednesday Mass at Rome’s Basilica of Santa Sabina, an act which will serve to renew an ancient Lenten tradition long held by the Diocese of Rome.The late Pope John Paul II was forced to abandon the practice as his health deteriorated late in life.Prior to Mass, the Holy Father will preside at brief prayer in the nearby Church of St. Anselm on Rome’s Aventine Hill.Following that, he will lead a penitential procession to the...

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony is allowing Catholics who want to celebrate Chinese New Year today to observe Ash Wednesday on Saturday. Both holidays occur today. "I hereby commute the obligation to observe fast and abstinence on Ash Wednesday," Mahony said in a statement released recently. Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a 40-day period that ends with Easter Sunday. Catholics are expected to fast on Ash Wednesday and to refrain from eating meat every Friday until Easter. Mahony's office estimates there are 1.8 million Asian-American Catholics in the Archdiocese, which includes Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties....

Today is Ash Wednesday, and for millions of devout Christians throughout the world, it marks the beginning of a 40-day period (excluding Sundays) of penitential preparation for Easter. In the apostolic era, it was a time of preparation of candidates for baptism and a period of fasting and penance for sinners. In those early days, fasting rules were strict as they still are among the Eastern churches.

ASh Wednesday, will be tommorrow, the beginning of the Lenten Season which will bring us to Good Friday, the day on which Catholics around the globe, REMEMBER, the suffering of Jesus Christ. Last year to the date, Mel Gibson, made a remarkably, real-to- life, TRUE movie,"The Passion of the Christ"- and brought to the screen of theaters,the Bible,pictured as never before. Some call Gibson, the "John Wayne" of Traditional Catholism, for just as John Wayne was far and wide known for his Americanism,and his guts: Gibson showed, much like Wayne his guts,in going forward with this history,in the Bible of...

by Katherine Andes Other Articles by Katherine Andes Ashes to Ashes 02/09/05 “Remember, man, you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Millions of Christians throughout the world will hear those today, as a sooty cross is thumbed on their foreheads. Ash Wednesday is an interesting ceremony. It is not at all obligatory like the sacraments of baptism or Sunday Mass. Unlike Holy Communion, you do not have to be in a state of grace to receive the ashes. You do not have to be a certain age. You do not even have to be a Christian. And so the...

February 9, 2005Ash Wednesday Psalm: Wednesday 9 Reading IJl 2:12-18 Even now, says the LORD,return to me with your whole heart,with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,and return to the LORD, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,slow to anger, rich in kindness,and relenting in punishment.Perhaps he will again relentand leave behind him a blessing,Offerings and libationsfor the LORD, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion!proclaim a fast,call an assembly;Gather the people,notify the congregation;Assemble the elders,gather the childrenand the infants at the breast;Let the bridegroom quit his roomand the bride her chamber.Between the porch and the...

ASH WEDNESDAY Station—St. Sabina Remember man that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return If there is any place in Rome where Lent, with its atmosphere of penitential solitude mixes with the reawakening of spring, then it must be along this path which climbs up from the Circus Maximus towards the Aventine, on the top of which stands the Church of St. Sabina. In God's name then let us go up to the holy mount. Is it not significant that the first Lenten mystery is celebrated on a mount, the Aventine? Already in pre-Christian days this hill was...

Original caption: With the sign of the cross on his forehead, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., leaves St. John's Cathedral after an Ash Wednesday visit in Cleveland, Ohio, Wednesday Feb. 25, 2004. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

WASHINGTON -- When I first heard that Mel Gibson was making a movie about Christ's passion, I didn't believe I'd ever see it. At the time, the swirl of rumors said it was to be a three-hour religious epic, in Aramaic, without subtitles. I doubted it would ever make it to video, never mind a full theatrical release. A year-and-a-half later I found myself standing in line with at least 100 other people hoping to get into an Ash Wednesday matinee of The Passion of the Christ. Many of us bunched together for over an hour waiting for the theater...

No one moved when the film ended and the credits began. Stillness prevailed. Tears fell. Soon, some got up and left. Others remained. Outside, in the lobby of Tall City 10, a line had already formed. Those waiting had bought tickets early, stood in the roped-off section quietly and waited patiently for the previous showing of "The Passion of the Christ" to end. Faith called many. Curiosity brought others. A question drew some to Tall City 10 Ash Wednesday for the opening showings of Mel Gibson's controversial R-rated film depicting the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus of...

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the last hurrah before the Catholic season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. It also has links to the Christmas season through the period known as Carnival.Mardi Gras' Catholic Roots Mardi Gras, literally "Fat Tuesday," has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the "last hurrah" before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That's why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French...

Ashes Ecclesiasticus 7:40 "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin."   In the 17th. c., a style of painting known as "vanitas painting" became popular (see above). This style included elements that represented temporal bounty - flowers, fruits, etc., and symbols of riches, such as gold and jewels. These gorgeous gifts from God were then juxtaposed with symbols that showed the reality of death, usually a skull, or an hourglasses that symbolized the passage of time. The point of this style is the moral of which Ecclesiasticus 1 reminds us, "What profit hath a...

Ashes Ecclesiasticus 7:40 "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin."   In the 17th. c., a style of painting known as "vanitas painting" became popular (see above). This style included elements that represented temporal bounty - flowers, fruits, etc., and symbols of riches, such as gold and jewels. These gorgeous gifts from God were then juxtaposed with symbols that showed the reality of death, usually a skull, or an hourglasses that symbolized the passage of time. The point of this style is the moral of which Ecclesiasticus 1 reminds us, "What profit hath a...

The Holy Season of Lent Fast and Abstinence.It is a traditional doctrine of Christian spirituality that a constituent part of repentance, of turning away from sin and back to God, includes some form of penance, without which the Christian is unlikely to remain on the narrow path and be saved (Jer. 18:11, 25:5; Ez.  18:30, 33:11-15; Joel 2:12; Mt. 3:2; Mt. 4:17; Acts 2:38). Christ Himself said that His disciples would fast once He had departed (Lk. 5:35). The general law of penance, therefore, is part of the law of God for man. The Church for her part has...

March 5, 2003Ash Wednesday Psalm: Wednesday Week 12 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Reading II Gospel Reading I Jl 2:12-18 Even now, says the Lord,return to me with your whole heart,with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;Rend your hearts, not your garments,and return to the Lord, your God.For gracious and merciful is he,slow to anger, rich in kindness,and relenting in punishment.Perhaps he will again relentand leave behind him a blessing,Offerings and libationsfor the Lord, your God. Blow the trumpet in Zion!proclaim a fast,call an assembly;Gather the people,notify the congregation;Assemble the elders,gather the childrenand the infants at the breast;Let the bridegroom quit his...

ASH WEDNESDAY James Akin Q: What is Ash Wednesday? A: Ash Wednesday is the day Lent begins. It occurs forty days before Good Friday.Q: Is Ash Wednesday based on a pagan festival?A: Heck, no. Ash Wednesday originated in the A.D. 900s, long after Europe had been Christianized and the pagan cults stamped out.Q: Why is it called Ash Wednesday?A: Actually, Ash Wednesday is its colloquial name. Its official name is the Day of Ashes. It is called Ash <Wednesday> because, being forty days before Good Friday, it always falls on a Wednesday and it is called <Ash> Wednesday because...

JOHN PAUL II ANGELUSSunday, 23 February 2003<!INIZIO TESTO><!FINE TESTO>  Dear Brothers and Sisters,1. For months the international community has been living in great apprehension on account of the danger of a war that might upset the whole Middle East region and aggravate the tensions that, unfortunately, are already present at the beginning of the third millennium. It is a duty for believers, regardless of the religion they belong to, to proclaim that we can never be happy if we are against one another, the future of humanity can never be assured by terrorism and the logic of war. We Christians,...