To inaugurate this season, the church has employed the symbol of ashes.

It is a time when the church collectively practices fasting and repentance and prayer. The season of Lent, being a penitential season, is a particularly appropriate time to participate in this biblical practice. Additionally, in the gospel of Matthew, our Lord condemns cities for refusing to repent from their sin in sackcloth and ashes, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” (Matthew 11:21) Thus the connection between ashes and repentance is very clear in Scripture.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” (Jonah 3:5-6) The prophet Daniel prays in sackcloth and ashes for the deliverance of Israel from the punishment of exile, “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” (Daniel 9:3) Throughout the prophetic books of the Old Testament repentant Israel is described as covering herself with ashes. After God answers Job’s complaint from the great whirlwind, Job states, “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6) The people of Nineveh, hearing the preaching of Jonah concerning the judgment which was to come upon them repented in sackcloth and ashes, “And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The practice of the imposition of ashes arises out of the biblical association between ashes and repentance. The priest makes the sign of the cross in ash on the forehead and recites the words, “remember, O man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.” This tradition goes back to at least the tenth century, being mentioned by the Anglo-Saxon Homilist Aelfric as the practice of all the faithful.

On the first day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday, it is traditional for Christians to receive the imposition of ashes. A Consideration of the Imposition of Ashes

First imposition of ashes