ASH WEDNESDAY 2026

Ash Wednesday: Beginning Lent with Prayer, Repentance, Fasting, and Spiritual Spring Cleaning

On Blessed Mary Messages, Cristy and Father Perry introduce a new Lent-focused segment on Ash Wednesday. Father Perry leads an opening prayer asking for humility, repentance, fasting from bitterness and unkindness, renewed hope, and guidance toward Easter. He explains Ash Wednesday as the first day of Lent and an opportunity to become fully available to God through repentance and spiritual “spring cleaning,” using the example of clearing out an overfilled garage and a suggested prayer giving Jesus permission to prune and renew one’s spiritual life. He shares highlights from a longer document available via QR code/newsletter, including biblical references to repentance in dust, ashes, and sackcloth (Job, Jeremiah, Daniel, Jonah) and notes that Christians historically used ashes, with Catholics receiving ashes since the time of St. Gregory the Great and Pope Urban II encouraging church-wide use. He clarifies Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation, but encourages attending Mass or a prayer service to receive ashes with the formula “Remember man, thou art dust and to dust thou shall return,” and describes the order of imposition of ashes in communal celebrations. The episode covers abstinence from meat (unless medically exempt) and fasting rules for Catholics ages 14–59 (one full meal plus two smaller meals not equaling a full meal), emphasizing small sacrifices to strengthen willpower and faith. Father Perry discusses Lenten practices such as Stations of the Cross on Fridays, notes liturgical color changes to purple/violet (and rose on the fourth Sunday), and mentions that “Alleluia” is omitted until Easter. They invite viewers/listeners to join a mailing list for the full document and resources, including questions, prayer requests, downloads, and possible spiritual direction contact, and explain that Saturday episodes will focus on Lent while returning to Blessed Mary apparitions after Lent. The episode closes with a blessing and encouragement to embrace Lent.

00:00 Welcome + Opening Prayer for Ash Wednesday
01:38 How to Get the Full Lent Document (Newsletter/QR Code)
02:18 Sackcloth & Ashes Storytime + What Ash Wednesday Means
04:13 Repentance & Spiritual “Spring Cleaning” for Lent
06:14 When Is Ash Wednesday? Biblical Roots of Ashes
07:33 Church History: How Ashes Became a Catholic Practice
08:26 Obligation, Abstinence, and Small Sacrifices That Build Willpower
10:10 Fasting Rules Explained (Ages, Meals) + Making Lent Personal
12:02 Receiving Ashes at Mass: The Formula & How the Rite Works
14:50 Lenten Season Basics: Colors, Desert Symbolism, Stations of the Cross
17:40 No ‘Alleluia’ Until Easter + What’s Coming Next in the Series
19:14 Final Blessing, Wrap-Up, and How to Send Questions/Prayer Requests

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Transcript

Restream recording Feb 17, 2026 • 03:59:30 AM 0:06

Welcome to Blessed Mary Messages. Today is Ash Wednesday and we are, um, starting a new segment just for Lent. Um, father Perry, would you like to, um, start us with our prayer? Um, yes, Christie, I sure would. Here's that, here's the prayer that you're looking for right here. Um. We should start with a, with a sign of the cross for sure. Especially if we're Ash Wednesday merciful. God, on this day of ashes and humility, we come before you with open hearts, acknowledging our need for your grace, as the dust upon our forehead reminds us of our frailty. Let it also remind us of our unfailing mercy. Turn our hearts away from pride and selfishness and draw us closer to the path of love, compassion, and truth. In this season of Lent, teach us to fast. From bitterness to fast, from on kindness, to walk in humility with you and to serve others with, with joy, renew our spirits, restore our hope, and lead us toward the light of Easter mourning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Restream recording Feb 17, 2026 • 04:17:33 AM 1:38

Okay, so here we go, Ash One Wednesdays. Father Perry, you have a whole document for us. Um. And guess I'm sharing it on the screen, so just you can just talk about Ash Wednesday. And if people want the whole document, they can, um, they can sign up for our newsletter. I will put the QR code here and there we go. They can scan it if they're watching on YouTube or if they're on listening to podcasts, it'll be in the show notes. Um. Father Perry. Thank you Christie. Well, you know, in a couple days we get to wear sock sackcloth and ashes. Did you, did you order from Amazon your sackcloth or not? Well, I invite you to do that. They have same night in delivery, so go ahead and be, feel free to do that. When I was a pastor down south in southeast Alaska, I used to, uh. Promised my parti parishioners that I would order the order of the, uh, both, both the ashes and the sackcloth. And I, the sackcloth, of course, had to come from a outside source. And you know, something, my friends, every year I would get a oath saying that the S sat cloth would be delayed. So unfortunately my friends, unfortunately, none of the parishioners got to wear the s sat cloth. They got the ashes, but that's it. But for further, uh, for further understanding of what sackcloth, of what Ashe Wednesday is, I'd like to share a few things with you and, you know, very, very briefly. And then if you want to know the full document, which I invite you to read. Uh, as part of a meditation, uh, feel free to click on the, uh, the QR code there. So what is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent a wonderful opportunity to make yourself a hundred percent available to God. How available are you to God? 50%, 75, 90 6%. No matter what your answer, Ash Wednesday is the perfect time to decide that you will spend this land increasing by with just Jesus. On Ash Wednesday, you get your forehead blessed with ashes as mass or prayer service. These ashes are under that. We need to repent. Repentance is a powerful invitation. When John the Baptist first appeared in the desert of Judea, this was his message, repent, prepare the way of the Lord. Matthew. Three. Later, when Jesus began his ministry, he led. He led his. He led his, this message, repent with the kingdom of Heaven at the hand of the Lord. In the hand of God, Matthew four. We all find ourselves needing to turn back to God many times in the way small and larger. It is not a matter of God guilt. It is a man of shameful things. It is simply that we are a better version of ourselves. I'm many, I don't know how many of you are homeowner owners out there, but I tell you what, I've always maintained that land is a time for some spring cleaning. Now, that's spiritually speaking. Now the good illustration is that is if you are homeowners, you have a garage. Now the garage is designed by the builder to have just the car, but take a look at the garage. After you listen to this and say to yourself, is there something here that I don't need? It's the same way basically as Ash Wednesday. Just ask Jesus a following prayer, Lord Jesus. During this LI give you permission to do some spring cleaning in my spiritual house and leave it go with that. So when is Ash? Wednesday? It's coming up February 18th. The history of the Ashes on Ash Wednesday first. The first one basically is in job. Therefore, I disown what I have said and repent in dust and ashes. Jeremiah, daughter of my people dressed in sat cloth rolling ashes. Jeremiah Daniel, I turn to the Lord God to seek help in prayer and petition with fasting sackcloth and Nashville's Daniel three nine when the news. Reached the Kingdom of une. He rose from his throne, laid a aside, his robe covered himself with sat cloth and sat in ashes. Then he had this proclamation throughout NME by decree of the king in the nobles, no man or beast. Nor cattle or sheep shall taste anything. They shall not eat, nor shall they drink. Water man and beast alike must be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God. They all must turn away from the evil ways and from the violence of their hands. Jonah three, chapter three, the That Christians used ashes to show repentance. As well, but not just as Ash Ashes. On Wednesday, after going to confession, it was commonly for the the priest to give a person ashes on his forehead. Catholics have been receiving ashes on Ashe Wednesday. Since the time of St. Gregory, the great 10 91. Pope Irvin II encouraged the entire church to use ashes on Ash Wednesday. If you want to get blessed with ashes on this Wednesday, be sure to check with the local parish, make sure, make and go to mass and have a special ceremony, which is generally offered. Is Ash Wednesday, a holy day of obligation? Contrary to popular belief, Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation. Even though you're not required to attend mass ash Wednesday is a wonderful opportunity to rearrange your priorities and feed your soul because one of the most important seasons of retirement. Here. Can we eat meat on Ash Wednesday? No, unless you have a medical exemption. Ash Wednesday is a day of absence for Catholics. Avoid meat can be difficult, but it's a powerful way to be disciplined about your priorities when you make these little sacrifices a part of the everyday spirituality. Amazing things happen. For example, suppose you have a craving for a Coke. Oh, maybe a piece of chocolate too. Throw that in there, but you have a glass of water instead. It is the smallest thing. No matter, no, nobody notices. And yet, by this simple action, you've strengthened your willpower and become even better version of yourself. And it goes on here to save a variety of other things. But if you want to grow and strengthen this lens, there's one simple thing you can do. Try to never leave a meal table without practicing some form of sacrifice. It is these little tiny acts that will strengthen your will for the great moments of decision that you are, are part of each day. Why are fasting rules for a ash Wednesday the church requires, oh, what? So that's What are your fasting rules? The church requires a Catholic from ages 14 to 59 to fast on Ash Wednesday. As long as you are in good health, this means that you should only eat one full meal, plus two smaller meals that do not equal a full meal. H Wednesday is also a day where Catholics avoid eating meat. And it goes on here to say, and like I said, we're just, I'm just highlighting some of the important ones and, but if you want to read the full document, uh, we've put up a QR code, um, for you to, uh, read the entire thing and for meditation on it, go without food for several hours, and you quickly realize how truly weak, frail, and dependent we are. This knowledge of self stripes await arrogance and fosters a loving acknowledgement of our utter dependency on God. Ash Wednesday is a powerful day to re discover the power of fasting in your life. Make it personal. Ash. Wednesday is the perfect time to decide if you want to have the kind of light length that is easy. And so my friends, that's just the highlights and the QR code is right there. But like I said in a few minutes ago, just give your time. Say Jesus, Jesus, I give you permission to prune me to do some spring cleaning, not only in my physical life. But also in my spiritual life as well. So be out there and, and enjoy a couple days. Uh, we're all receiving our ashes and everything else like that. And the formula basically is remember man, thou does and does shall return. Um, and then you get your ashes and everything else, including a priest. Actually the priest is the first one. If there's a common celebration, uh, each priest anoints themselves, you know that, like that. But if there's only just a single priest, uh, you do that very first thing and then you turn it around and then everybody comes up like they're coming up for communion and they do that. So. It is a great time, discipline. Spend some little self-sacrificing, you know, and don't, you know, just don't be afraid of, of saying to Jesus, I need some help here. It's time for some spring cleaning, and it's amazing what happens when you give Jesus permission to spring clean us, you know? Uh, it can be difficult at times, especially when you walk past cinon all the time. Whoa, that could be really serious. But, you know, you have, we all have our little things that we can give up and just like the, uh, just like it said right there, little things, you know, if you, that extra scuba mashed potatoes with gravy and everything, or whatever else, you know. Just, just enjoy the beginning of Lent and like I, and like we said, the, uh, the full script is right there. But because I think it's important for us all to, to do that, uh, and to read it and to meditate on it, I think it's, it's important for us just to read the full document and entail, and if you have any help and if you want any, if you want any information or anything else like that, um. I think we, we've got a, a variety of resources that, that we're developing in here and everything else. But if you, uh, if you want, uh, under notes, I think, um, if, if you wanna contact me, uh, as regards to any type of, uh, spiritual direction, uh, we'll, we're gonna post that now too, I think, and see just exactly how that works out. But we're. We're a piece of coal in the, trying to become a diamond. So help, uh, help us with this. Okay. Uh, I set my one out already and then we're trying to develop a, a mailing list so that everybody can see it at the same time, and then we go, we kind of go from there. But welcome to Lent. Huh? Welcome to Ash Wednesday, and you'll notice my friends, oh my God. You'll notice that we're gonna change colors. We're not gonna be green anymore. We're gonna be, well, it's gonna be a purple or a light violet or something, depending on the type of the, depending on the Sunday and everything else. Why is it purple on during meditation? Meditation time? You gotta, it is got, it. Is you're gonna be in the desert. That's one reason why it's 40 days, just like Jesus was in 40 days. But he just had a, he just had his own clothes on. But the church and its wisdom decided that it was gonna be purple. And then the fourth Sunday of the fourth Sunday of, uh, of land, we changed colors to a, a rose. Or red and the rose means that, hallelujah. We're halfway there and we're getting ready for Easter. Does he rose from the dead? I'm trying to be funny. Yeah. Yeah. Rose color. We're saying we're halfway there. But that can be a good time. It could be a family time, it could be just an individual time. But main thing is the spirituality of of land. I've, I've lived it, you know, ever since I. It became ordained and et cetera. I've always said, Hey, you know what? I just asked Jesus, Jesus, I give you permission to, uh, to prune me in any way that I need to be pruned so I can become more like you. And that's it. There's nothing more to say. Let, like I said, there used to be guidelines. I mean, there still is, I mean, you know, 14 to 59, but. My friends, I hate to say this to you, but some of us are a little bit older than 59, so, uh, but we still pray and we still fast. And what's the nice thing about the church that I'm attending now and helping out with, uh, we have stations of the cross, which is on Fridays, and what they do is they have the, they have the stations. The kids stations at a certain time, then they have a soup and sandwich thing, or just soup on the same at six o'clock, and then at seven o'clock they have the, they have the regular stations of the cross by, by the adults. So if your church, if your church, you're reading this, if your church has stations of the cross or whatever, I enjoy, go to a, you know, and, and say the celebrate, celebrate the stations of the cross. That's, that's our lens. Before you know it, it's all over with. And you'll be singing hallelujah again. 'cause you're gonna be missing one thing too, my friends. You can't use the hallelujah anymore. Hallelujah is gonna be gone until Easter. Hmm. Well there's, yeah. You get, you get one, one Sunday. Well, one special mass. That's gonna be the hallelujah, but that's like the CRIS Mass, which is, we'll go into that too, to a certain extent. Mm-hmm. As time goes on. But we're gonna, we're gonna leave this like this at Ash Wednesday. Probably go into just a little bit more of Ash Wednesday, and then talk about the, talk about the first. First season, you know, the first time in Latin and everything else, the first Sunday of land. And then we'll continue on. And, um, we're gonna try our best here to, to get the message out to everybody that have, that I've got addresses to, uh, like I said, it's a work in progress. But for those of you who are listening to this, welcome to our little podcast here to where we bring you. Jesus and Mama Mary to a closer reunion, and that's basically what this is all about, is this, for us to share our love that we have for all of them and which. Which means that we, we just share that with, with, with you. And, and hopefully these messages that we prepare for, for you will make a change in your life. And again, uh, the Lord be with you and with your spirit. A blessing, the Father, son of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And just, just enjoy Lent, huh? Uh, Hey, and listen, you don't, you, you're still gonna get the ashes. Now, if the, the post office hasn't delivered the sackcloth, don't worry about it. You don't, you don't have to tell the priest that he forgot something. He didn't anyway, but no. All right, father, so that's our Ash Wednesday, um, episode. And then, um, for during Lent. So when we do our Saturday episodes, we're going to focus on Lent, we're gonna resume, um, the Blessed Mary Apparitions after Lynn. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. And then for everyone who wants to get on our newsletter or newsletter, um, we do have a link now to get on our mailing list. So, um, it is available, you can send your questions, um, request or prayer request, um, to Father Perry and I, we team blessed Mary messages and. Um, just let us know if there's any downloads or prayers that you want us to send you that we have um, mentioned during our episodes, and we will see you then. Until next time, God bless young people.