In confession,we acknowledge our need for God’s mercy and forgiveness. We are called to remember that every one of us has failed to be the person God means us to be, yet God comes offering reconciliation rather than condemnation. The Ash Wednesday service focuses heavily on self-examination and confession. Burned to ash, they also represent failed attempts at discipleship, along with our mortality. Exactly how this tradition began is unknown, but the dried-out withered leaves may represent the wilting of the enthusiasm expressed on Palm Sunday. This time of repentance, reflection, fasting, and other special religious disciplines begins with the somber Ash Wednesday service which includes the imposition of ashes on the worshippers.Traditionally the ashes are produced by burning palms from the previous Palm Sunday procession. It became a period of fasting, penitence, and other activities which focused on our need for God’s redeeming love in Jesus. Lent grew out of the intense period of preparation for new Christians in the first centuries of the Church. For hundreds of years the Church has held services on Ash Wednesday to mark the beginning of the season of Lent.
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