This phrase was the only one used on Ash Wednesday until the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Words used when applying ashesĪ 12th-century missal, a ritual book with instructions on how to celebrate the Eucharist, indicates the words used when putting ashes on the forehead were: “Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The phrase echoes God’s words of reproach after Adam, according to the narrative in the Bible, disobeyed God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. The practice caught on and spread, and in 1091 Pope Urban II decreed that “on Ash Wednesday everyone, clergy and laity, men and women, will receive ashes.” It’s been going on ever since. So as centuries went on, the church’s public prayer at the beginning of Lent added a phrase, “Let us change our garments to sackcloth and ashes,” as a way to call the whole community, not just the most serious sinners, to repentance.Īround the 10th century, the practice arose of acting out those words about ashes by actually marking the foreheads of those taking part in the ritual. The customary time to welcome them back to the Eucharist was at the end of Lent, during Holy Week.īut Christians believe that all people are sinners, each in his or her own way. During that time they did acts of penance, like extra praying and fasting, and lying “ in sackcloth and ashes,” as an outward action expressing interior sorrow and repentance.

How to prepare ashes for imposition