Join us for a special Ash Wednesday service geared toward children and families. This service will include the Imposition of Ashes.

What is the Imposition of Ashes and why do we do it? 

Ash Wednesday is named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers on the first of the forty days of Lent. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of our human frailty and mortality; they are most often imposed with the sign of the cross. It’s an invitation to make each day a new beginning, washed in God’s mercy and forgiveness. As God said to Adam, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” As we are marked with ashes on our foreheads in the same manner that we are signed with the cross at Baptism, we are reminded that we are marked as Christ’s own forever in a visible way.