Ash Wednesday adjustment

 


This year, the Vatican's Congregation for the sacraments has asked parishes across the world to modify their Ash Wednesday procedures a little bit because of the ongoing Covid-19 Chinese flu epidemic. 

Instead of tracing the sign of the cross on the forehead with ashes, they are asking the priests or other ministers of the sacrament to sprinkle ashes on the head of the penitent, in order to avoid direct contact.

This may seem a little unusual (especially to American Catholics) but this is actually an ancient symbol of penance with deep biblical roots, and has been done as part of the Ash Wednesday devotion for a very long time in various parts of the world. 

The photograph above depicts Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI receiving ashes this way while he was still reigning.

The formula spoken with the administration of ashes will remain the same: Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.   Or, in its original Latin, the traditional language of the Church:

Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

(The Church now uses a rather unfortunate flattened translation of the formula, which removes reference to man.)  But the word man is key to the meaning.  Just as Adam (the name is simply Hebrew for man) was formed from the dust of the earth, so too are we.  It is through the Holy Spirit that we are more than dust -- than physical matter -- and we can become sons of God.  But as sinners, if we do not turn back to God, we destroy that relationship of sonship that God gave us.  Without remaining in God's grace and obtaining forgiveness of sin, which is given through the power of Christ's death and Resurrection, we can have no life in Him.  (As always, I remind all Catholics to go to confession during Lent).

Despite some minor changes in the visible form of this ritual, then, the profound meaning remains the same.

Here is a brief ecumenical reflection on this practice written by David Mills, a Catholic Convert and writer who has been very active in the ecumenical movement to bring Christians together.

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