Next Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent, it is called Ash Wednesday. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Jesus’ Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Year 5 and Year 6 will be attending the Parish mass at 9am in the church.

Years 1-4 will take part in a Liturgy in the hall at 9.15am.

Parents are welcome to join with their child either at mass or the liturgy.

On Ash Wednesday we will be marked with a cross on our forehead. The tradition of marking the forehead with ash on Ash Wednesday can be traced back to the ancient Jewish action of dusting oneself with ash as a sign of repentance and mourning for wrongful actions. It was a public declaration of the acknowledgement of the wrong and the commitment to turn one’s life around and try not to make the same mistake again. It still remains a public declaration that during the period of Lent those who wear the cross of ash are going to attempt to turn around their lives and re-focus themselves more fully on God. The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. 

Lent is a season consisting of forty days of fasting, prayer, penitence, and almsgiving. It concludes on Holy Thursday. The official liturgical colour for the season of Lent is violet. This Lent families will be asked to support Caritas’ Project Compassion in raising money for the needy in Australia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Vietnam.

Mrs Martine Mathieson
Religious Education Coordinator