As the penitential season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, Fr. Leo Patalinghug appeared on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” to explain how the Christian call to repentance is a time for “intentional living.”
On Wednesday, Christians around the world enter into this prayerful 40-day period before Easter by attending church services and marking their foreheads with crosses smudged from ash as a reminder of their mortality.
“The ashes are actually coming from the palms that are burned from last year, and it’s actually representative of the time when Jesus entered Jerusalem with palm branches waving his victory because palms are a sign of victory, and the ashes themselves from these palms are actually a sign of penance,” Patalinghug said. “When we look at Psalm 102, it talks about how we are so sorrowful that our drink, our tears, and our bread are ashes, and so it’s a time for Catholics and Christians alike to enter into a period of interior reflection, sorrow, but also a joy, knowing that our sins are nothing compared to the love and the mercy of Jesus Christ.”
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