With the imposition of ashes, Lent begins

Ash Wednesday

Hundreds of parishioners attended various churches in the country to participate in the Mass imposition of ashes, beginning Lent. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and lasts until she Eucharist "In the Lord s Supper" Holy Thursday. That is, with the Church Ash Wednesday begins Lent-Easter cycle. The ash is a symbol of the ephemeral and the worthless. The Church employs Ash Wednesday in order to call people to conversion, with the necessary approach to receive this sacrament. The sign of the imposition of ashes has two components "material": a cross made with ashes. The cross is a sign of salvation, of pain and regret, but also of triumph, glory, resurrection. It is an emblem of our redemption. The formula imposition of ashes highlights two fundamental realities in Catholic life: first warns that the continuous conversion is required. So he says, "Repent and believe in the Gospel". And then he remembers his earthly reality, death: "Remember you are dust and to dust you convert." Based on the foregoing, the Catholic who approaches that impose the ash must come with the spiritual disposition of having a strong and effective will of conversion and paschal reconciliation with God and with the brothers. If the imposition of ashes is coming, approaching that trace the cross with ashes and the person is ... a grave pastoral error would be committed, for the symbolic and spiritual value of the imposition of ashes would be distorted and God forbid, the imposition of ashes might happen to show an aspect of magical type. "it gets to avoid" evil "or" misfortune "this year, it is simply fulfill a" rite "is I do because others do. it is important to know that children are not imposed ash as they are still not subject to conversion. with the imposition of ashes the Church enters into a time of "spiritual retreat", ordered .. the experience of Easter ash Wednesday should make us aware that it is necessary to initiate a spiritual balance for the renewal of the life of the Spirit is a day strongly marked by austerity: fasting, abstinence from meat, no flowers in the enclosure of the Church ... should mark the start of austerity in the life of the Church, that this austerity invite personal austerity Lent.