Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Let me give you a short article by Sr. Maria Cecilia M. Paywal, PDDM which was featured in last Sunday's sambuhay misalette:
Ash
Ash comes from the Latin word cinis, the product of the burning of something in the fire. It symbolizes death, expiration, and may also mean humility and penance. In the book of Jonas (3:6), it was used to describe the conversion of the people of Nineveh. Oftentimes it is used together with the "dust" of the earth: "in truth, I am dust and ashes," says Abraham in Genesis 18:27.
On Ash Wednesday, before the first Sunday of Lent, the symbolic gesture of the imposition of the ash on the forehead is being done. This is the ash of the palms that were blessed in the past year. It is done as a response to the Word of God that invites us to conversion, which marks the beginnings of the Lenten fast and the journey of preparation for Easter. Lent starts with the ash and ends with the fire, the water, and the light of the Easter Vigil. Something has to be burned and destroyed within us - the old self - to give was to the new life in Christ.
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