Ash Wednesday
There will be a service for Ash Wednesday in St Gabriel's church on Wednesday 10th February at 7.30pm. Hope you can join us for this.
What is Ash Wednesday?
What is Ash Wednesday?
Ash Wednesday, a day
of fasting, is the
first day of Lent in Western Christianity. It
occurs 46 days (40 fasting days, if the 6 Sundays, which are not days of fast,
are excluded) before Easter and
can fall as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March. Ash Wednesday is observed by
many Western Christians,
including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics.[note 1][1]
According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he
endured temptation by Satan.[2] Lent
originated as a mirroring of this, fasting 40 days as preparation for Easter.
Every Sunday was seen as a commemoration of the Sunday of Christ's resurrection
and so as a feast day on which fasting was inappropriate. Accordingly,
Christians fasted from Monday to Saturday (6 days) during 6 weeks and from
Wednesday to Saturday (4 days) in the preceding week, thus making up the number
of 40 days.[3]
Ash Wednesday derives its
name from the practice of blessing ashes made from palm branches blessed on the previous year's Palm
Sunday, and placing them on the heads of participants to the
accompaniment of the words "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or
"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return".[4]
(Taken from Wikipedia)
If you want to check out the liturgy for this service for the Church of England click here
Comments
Post a Comment