Ash Wednesday: welcome to Lent!
Today is a special day for Christians, although you won’t find greeting cards or gifts marking the occasion: it’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. Throughout Lent, many Christians choose to prepare themselves (through prayer, repentance, and reflection) to celebrate Easter, the commemoration of Christ’s resurrection.
Lent is a quieter event than most other holidays—it calls us to personal reflection rather than to outward celebration. You may have seen people walking around with an ash mark on their foreheads today—many Christians choose to mark Ash Wednesday with a cross-shaped mark of ash. For some people, Lent is also a time of self-denial, in which they choose to give up something (anything from a certain type of food to a personal habit) as a way to help them focus on the meaning of the season.
However you decide to commemorate Ash Wednesday and Lent, here are a few resources to help you get into the spirit of the season:
- Ash Wednesday, “spring cleaning for the soul”—why is Ash Wednesday important, and what does it really mean? Why do we hear so little of it from most Christian churches?
- An explanation of the significance of Lent, for those who aren’t clear on what it stands for.
- Lent is for losers—a short reflection explaining why Lent is a holiday especially for the broken and burdened.
- Lent is a time when many Christians choose to “live with less,” through fasting or some other form of self-denial. But have you thought about living this way all throughout the year?
- A Lent reflection from the AlreadyNotYet blog.
- Thinking of giving up something for Lent? How about TV or regular personal habit? It’s not all deadly serious—James Watkins has a humorous account of what he’s giving up for Lent.
It seems inappropriate, given the nature of Lent, to wish you a happy Lent. But may you have a reflective and prayerful Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Easter!
