from the ashes

"from the ashes you came, to the ashes you will return."

today is "ash wednesday". a holy day of obligation for us Catholics. followers are required to hear mass and to have their foreheads crossed with ash as a sign of renewal of their baptismal vows and serves as a reaffirmation to follow the ways of Christ and to seek forgiveness for their sins.

it is also the start of a 40-day Lenten Season in the Catholic Calendar where we commemorate Jesus Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

the church encourages its constituents to do fasting and abstinence as a form of sacrifice. during fasting, the faithful will not take any food only water. in abstinence, the faithful refrain from eating meat: pork, beef and chicken.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has asked the faithful to give to charity and said, “beyond the rites and liturgies of Blessed Ashes and the disciplines of the fast and religious practices, what the Lord wishes is the discipline and prayer that reach out to the good of others”.

in the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI had a similar Lenten message as he called on Catholics to “retrain ourselves spiritually through practice of almsgiving in order to grow in charity and recognize the poor Christ Himself.”

source: Philstar.com