Ash Wednesday, The First Day of Lent

Today Catholics celebrate ash Wednesday. It's the first day of Lent. The mardi gras celebrations are over. It's a day of fast and prayer. The whole Lenten season is a time for being sorry for our sinfulness. Not only our own but for the whole world's sinfulness as well. We pray that we want to be better Christians. We ask Jesus to help us change to be better follower's of Christ. It's also a time of alms giving. To help by giving money or giving your time to someone in need. And penance which is being sorry for your sins and going to confession. Don't forget that Catholics are obligated to make at least one confession a year. And you guessed it...we're to go during Lent. Also it's a day we get to go to mass and receive the ashes on our foreheads in the form of the cross. It's to remind us that we will all die one day. Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. Which means you are not required to go to mass. But don't you want to? Why would you miss out on an opportunity to receive Jesus in the Eucharist? Plus it's just the perfect way to start Lent. Yes mass is in the evening and I'm starving at that point in the day. But I do it for the love of Jesus I guess. I always look around the church and think, are these people starving like I am or what? I usually leave my cross of ashes on till the next morning. I like to sleep with it on my forehead. I go to mass in the evening so my children can go after school. But what about you? Do you go get your ashes in the morning? Do you where your ashes wherever you go that day? The ashes that are used are blessed from the priest. Also the ashes come from the palms that were collected and then burned, from the previous year. I wish you all a prayerful Lenten season in hopes that everyone will draw closer to the Lord. "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return...."