February 14, 2024 / 12:01 AM
Today the Catholic Church begins, with Ash Wednesday, the liturgical season of Lent. For 40 days, and through the experience of fasting, prayer and almsgiving, the faithful prepare for Holy Week in which the mysteries of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus are actualized.
At this time, the faithful are called in a special way to personal conversion, to increase their efforts to transform the mind and heart. The Church encourages us to live this spirit explicitly in the liturgy, during the imposition of ashes. The celebrant prints the sign of the cross on the forehead of each of the faithful, while saying: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1, 15).
On the other hand, with the expression “remember that you are dust and to dust you will return” (Gen 3, 19) – the other formula used during the imposition of ashes – we want to highlight the expiration and fragility of human life, whose inevitable destiny is death.