Ash Wednesday: The beginning of Lent 
With the imposition of ashes, it starts a spiritual station particularly relevant for all Christians who wish to prepare themselves worthily to live the Paschal Mystery, that is, the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
vigorous
This time of the liturgical year is characterized by the biblical message can be summed up in one word: "metanoeiete", ie "Repent." This imperative is proposed to the mind of the faithful by the austere rite of the imposition of ashes, which, with the words "Repent and believe the Gospel" and the phrase "Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return" invites us all to think about the duty of conversion, recalling the inexorable aging and ephemeral fragility of human life, subject to death. The evocative ceremony
ash elevates our minds to the eternal reality that never ends, God, beginning and end, alpha and omega of our existence. The conversion is, in effect, but a return to God, valuing earthly realities in the light unfailing truth. An assessment that involves a growing awareness of the clearest fact that we are passing through this arduous journey on earth, and that encourages and stimulates us to work until the end, so that the Kingdom of God is established within us and his justice triumph. Synonym
"conversion" is likewise the word "penance" ... Penance as a change of mentality. Penance as an expression of self and positive effort to follow Christ. Tradition
In the early Church, varying the duration of Lent, but eventually began six weeks (42 days) before Easter. This result was only 36 days of fasting (and excluding Sundays). In the seventh century were added four days before the first Sunday of Lent establishing the forty days of fasting, to imitate Christ's fasting in the desert.
was common practice in Rome for penitents begin his public penance on the first day of Lent. They were sprinkled with ashes, dressed in sackcloth and forced to stay away until it is reconciled with the Church on Holy Thursday or Thursday before Easter. When these practices fell into disuse (X-VIII century), the beginning of the penitential season of Lent was symbolized by placing ashes on the heads of the congregation.
Today in the Church, Ash Wednesday, the Christian receives a cross on the forehead with the ashes obtained by burning the palms used in the previous Palm Sunday. This tradition of the Church has remained a simple service in some Protestant churches like the Anglican and Lutheran. The Orthodox Church Lent begins on Monday before and does not celebrate Ash Wednesday.
symbolic meaning
Ash Ash, from the Latin "cynicism" is a product of burning something on fire. Easily acquired a symbolic meaning of death, revocation, and transferred sense, humility and penitence. 3.6 In Jonah used, for example, to describe the conversion of the inhabitants of Nineveh. Often joins the "dust" of the earth: "Truly I am dust and ashes," says Abraham in Genesis. 18.27. On Ash Wednesday, the first Sunday before Lent (many will understand it better by saying it is following the Carnival), we the symbolic gesture of the imposition of ashes on the forehead (the result of the cremation of the palms from last year). Is made in response to the Word of God who invites us to conversion, as the start of the Lenten fast and door and walking in preparation for Easter. Lent begins with ashes and ends with fire, water and light of the Easter Vigil. Something must be burned and destroyed in us, the old man, to give rise to the newness of Christ's paschal life.
While the Minister imposes the ashes says these two expressions interchangeably: "Repent and believe in the Gospel" (cf. MC1, 15) and "Remember you are dust and to dust thou shalt return" (cf. Gen 3.19) : a sign and words that express very well our frailty, our conversion and acceptance of the Gospel, or the newness of life that Christ wants to communicate every year at Easter. Again
