I just returned home from my church's Ash Wednesday service. I sat next to a girl from our youth group who was asking me if only United Methodists and Catholics celebrated Ash Wednesday. She explained that her Baptist and Mormon friends had never heard of it. The service was beginning just as she asked, so I gave as quick of an answer as I could in 10 seconds...but it got me thinking that perhaps there are a lot of people out there who may not understand what it's all about, or where the tradition comes from.

Rather than attempt to write my own blog on it, I though I'd share from a few other websites that I came across this evening that I thought were helpful.

=== ASH WEDNESDAY (taken from: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0805014.html)

Ash Wednesday, in the Western Church, the first day of Lent, being the seventh Wednesday before Easter. On this day ashes are placed on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them of death, of the sorrow they should feel for their sins, and of the necessity of changing their lives. The practice, which dates from the early Middle Ages, is common among Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians, and many Lutherans; it was also adopted by some Methodists and Presbyterians in the 1990s.

=== A LOOK AT LENT (taken from: http://neighborsgo.com/stories/29617)

You probably know Lent as the last-ditch attempt for some people to get their New Year’s Resolutions off the ground – no coffee, no chocolate, no soda, no whatever for forty weeks. This interpretation of giving something up for Lent is somewhat off the mark.

Celebrations like Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday were historically a time to engage in frivolity and overindulgence before the sober time of self-denial during Lent. In the past, families would fast from meat and animal products (with the exception of fish), and that is still the custom with some Christian denominations. In theological terms, the forty days of Lent represent the forty days Jesus withdrew into the wilderness before being tempted as detailed in the New Testament books Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

But above all, Lent is intended as a time of reflection and reevaluation for Christians, a time to remember their savior’s sacrifice and await the glorious resurrection. This is why Christians are encouraged to give something up for Lent – not to help a diet or break a habit, but to parallel Jesus’ sacrifice and to fill up their free moments with spiritual renewal. “Emphasis is put on discipline not as an end result but as a means of getting there – closer to Christ, that is,” says Dr. Ron Henderson, senior minister at Custer Road United Methodist Church. “Supposedly, we do not go back to what we have given up for Christ. We give up things that are not good for us.” For others, giving up something for Lent makes resuming it after Easter that much more meaningful.

Even so, instead of thinking of Lent as a time of self-denial, some might also approach these next six weeks as a time of fulfillment. “Say I felt I wanted to be more dependent on God; maybe I decide to receive the power of the God’s Spirit to be able to fast,” says the Rev. John Baldwin, associate minister. “Am I releasing or receiving? Are we going to focus on what we give up or what God gives? Is it blessing or bereavement, gain or loss?”

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25 [this year] during which [many churches hold a] worship service [that concludes with] an anointing with ashes. These ashes symbolize sorrow and humility as well as mortality. It is a time to acknowledge shortcomings and to prepare for change. Lent continues over forty days, not counting Sundays for most Western churches, until Holy Week and ultimately Easter Sunday on April 12.
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What are your thoughts on Ash Wednesday & Lent???

Do you have other helpful websites you'd like to share?