Ash Wednesday 2025: Prayer & Fasting

From The Worship Sourcebook, “The aim of Ash Wednesday worship is threefold: to meditate on our mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior; to renew our commitment to daily repentance in the Lenten season and in all of life; and to remember with confidence and gratitude that Christ has conquered death and sin.”  Mortality, sinfulness, and need of a savior show how this day serves the ongoing theme of repentance in Lent as we look forward to the joy of the resurrection on each Lord's Day Sunday and the particular celebration of Christ's work on our behalf on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  

My friend Tim LeCroy has written succinctly and compellingly on the origins and rationale for Ash Wednesday and Lent and why even Presbyterians should consider observing them. He answers at length many of the questions people often have so I will just briefly address a few more below.