Ash Wednesday: Reminds repentance, community, and death 

Christian Lent season begins with Ash wednesday, That reminds us the week of suffering of Christ ends on 'Easter Day' or 'Resurrection Day'. 

Ashes remind us of  “The weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”  Pope Said

Pope Leo reflected on repentance, community, and death this evening, as he presided over Ash Wednesday Mass in Rome’s Basilica of Saint Sabina. 

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting and prayer that precedes Easter.

This is, the Pope said, “a powerful time for community”. Today, he noted, community is increasingly rare – but Lent gathers people together, as “a community of witnesses that recognises their sins”.

These sins, Pope Leo stressed, are both personal and communal. Sin “afflicts our hearts, and exists within us”. At the same time, however, it takes place within broader “structures of sin”, which can be “economic, cultural, political and even religious” in nature.

Lent, Pope Leo underlined, means “daring to be free” of all this, through repentance and change.