It’s Ash Wednesday. What does that mean?

It means the beginning of Lent. And what is Lent?…

The 40 day run up to Easter.

On shrove Tuesday, yesterday, we use up our supplies of milk and eggs, by making pancakes. From Ash Wednesday onwards a time of austerity and ‘giving something up’ is traditional.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants to either the words “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” or the dictum “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”^[7] The ashes may be prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebrations.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Wednesday

Repent and believe the Gospel.

The Cross lights the Way. Photo by Orkhan Farmanli on Unsplash