5 Easy Ways to Observe Lent after Ash Wednesday - Types of Fasting for the 40 days of Lent!

 

Ash Wednesday a moveable feast that begins the liturgical season of Lent. It does not have a specific date but depends on when Easter is celebrated in 2024 it is on February 14. On Ash Wednesday Christians begin the period of the fast. Healthy people between the ages of 18 and 59 are required to fast or perform some act of penance on Ash Wednesday. Remember the point is to turn your heart from sin and excessive pleasure and focus more on God. So all penances should be done in a spirit of love of God and sorrow for sin.....
Here are 5 easy ways to observe Lent: Lenten Fasting or Penance can involve :

1. Watching less TV or Internet or Social Media

2. Helping the poor either with money or voluteering

3. Spending time with the sick at the hospital or old age home

4. Donating clothing to charity

5. Spending more time in prayer, attending Mass more often, going to Confession more often.
Required: Abstinence from meat is required on Ash Wednesday and Fridays during Lent. On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday Catholics from ages 18-59 are required to Fast which means the consumption of 1 full meal and only 2 smaller meals. Ash Wednesday starts the commemoration of Jesus' 40 days in the desert. Lent is actually 46 days as the Sundays do not count for the fasting period. When people attend Church services on Ash Wednesday day they are commonly blessed with ashes in the form of a cross on their foreheads, but it is not obligatory to attend Mass on Ash Wednesday. 

Is Ash Wednesday Mass a day of obligation to attend Mass and receive ashes? No, it is not required for the faithful to attend Mass nor receive ashes. However, it is very good to go to Mass on this day and all should try to go to Mass on Ash Wednesday. It is encouraged and visible sign to pray, do penance, and be humble. 
Where do the ashes come from?

The ashes are usually derived from the burning of the palms used on Palm Sunday. 

What do the Ashes on your forehead mean?

They are to remind people of their sins and call them to repentence. Usually a priest, deacon or lay person marks the person's forehead.

 The biblical verse is said:

Remember thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.

Genesis 3: 19

OR

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.

Mark 1 : 15
This marking is called a sacramental. Churches are decorated with purple during the season of Lent. Statues and crosses are covered with purple cloth. Lent ends with the celebration of Easter, when Jesus rose from the dead.

The Church encourages the faithful to go to Confession or Reconciliation during Lent. 

Confession involves the telling of one's sins to a priest who then provides forgiveness according to the commission of Christ.

John 20:21-23:

He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

BIBLICAL ROOTS

There are many biblical roots to repentence for sin with ashes, here are a few sources:

Judith 7: 14
But the children of Israel, when they saw the multitude of them, prostrated themselves upon the ground, putting ashes upon their heads, praying with one accord, that the God of Israel would shew his mercy upon his people.
Jeremiah 6:26
Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
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