This year our instruction concerning how ashes are to be distributed is far different then what we are used to. Recent changes have allowed for a cross to be traced with ashes using a Q-Tip while original instruction told us to drop it on the head of the individual. There were some who were highly upset over this news, but hopefully we are here not because of the mark of ashes that we bare upon our forehead for the world to see, but because we know that Lent is an important season and we desire to enter into it fully.
If others can see the ashes that we dare to bare or not does not change the important reminder of why we received them in the first place, for you are dust and to dust you will return. The reception of ashes is not a symbol of pride, but reminds us that we are sinners who are in need of God’s mercy. These ashes serve as a form of penance which will hopefully move us towards the desire to be reconciled with the Father in the sacrament of His mercy which is know to us as the sacrament of confession.
The world in which we live does not enjoy the reality of penance and yet this reality is so important for us to foster. Through enter into it we let go of all that has become disordered within us in order to we may be reoriented unto God. May this Lenten season renew that which was begun in you at your baptism. Through undergoing these penitential practices that now lay before you may you come to “repent and believe in the Gospel.”
