The Holy See Press Office announced on Feb. 28 that Pope Francis would not preside over the traditional celebration of the Ash Wednesday liturgy on Aventine Hill, which is to take place on March 5.

The Pope has been confined for more than two weeks in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to receive treatment for bilateral pneumonia and other ailments. As prayers continue to be said worldwide for his healing and recovery, we may recall what he said about Ash Wednesday, which marks the start of 40 days of Lent, one of the holiest periods for Christians.

“Jesus invites each one of us to go into our inner room,” the Pope said in his homily at the Ash Wednesday Mass he celebrated at the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Feb. 14 last year.

He said it was a call to “return to the heart,” a call “to go back to our true self and to present it just as it is, naked and defenseless, in the sight of God.”

On Ash Wednesday as observed by Catholics and also by Anglicans, Lutherans and other Christians, the priest blesses the ashes of the burned fronds used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday and administers these in the shape of a cross on the forehead of the faithful. 

The use of ashes originates in the Old Testament and symbolizes grief, mortality and penance. Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of Persian King Ahasuerus to kill all the Jewish people (Esther 4:1). Job also repented in sackcloth and ashes (Job 42:6). And Daniel, while a captive in Babylon, said: “I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).

Fr. William Saunders wrote in an article in EWTN.com that in the Middle Ages, those who were about to die were laid on the ground on top of sackcloth sprinkled with ashes. The priest would bless the dying person with holy water, saying, “Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.”

In the liturgy for Ash Wednesday, the priest echoes this prayer as he dabs ashes on the faithful’s forehead and says, “Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you shall return.” A more recent prayer is: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

Act of prayer and humility

Pope Francis said in his Ash Wednesday homily last year that receiving ashes on our forehead is an act of prayer and humility. It is “a gesture meant to remind us of the ultimate reality of our lives: that we are dust and our life passes away like a breath,” he said, adding: “Yet the Lord—He and He alone—does not allow it to vanish; He gathers and shapes the dust that we are, lest it be swept away by the winds of life or sink into the abyss of death.”

“The ashes placed on our head invite us to rediscover the secret of life. They tell us that as long as we continue to shield our hearts and hide ourselves behind a mask, to appear invincible, we will be empty and arid within,” the Pope said. “Let us acknowledge what we are: dust loved by God—and that, thanks to Him, we will be reborn from the ashes of sin to new life in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit.”

The Pope spoke not just of the reality of  death but also of hope in rebirth and eternal love. “When we have the courage to bow our heads in order to look within, we will discover the presence of God who loves us and has always loved us. At last, those shields you have built for yourself will be shattered and you will be able to feel yourself loved with an eternal love,” he said.

He went on to explain that the recognition that we are loved by God will help us see that we are called to love others in turn.

We are invited to “go into your inner room” and to “return to your heart” because “too often we find ourselves no longer having an inner room,” especially in a world where everything has become “social,” the Pope said.

It is precisely in the secret chamber within each of us “that the Lord has descended in order to heal and cleanse” us, he pointed out.

Finally, the Pope appealed to the faithful to make time for silent adoration, to hear the voice of the Lord in our lives, and to not be afraid “to strip ourselves of worldly trappings and to return to the heart, to what is essential.”

Fasting and abstinence

Ash Wednesday is a day of obligatory fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church. To abstain generally means not to eat meat. Fasting is required of those aged from 18 to 60, and abstinence, from age 14 onward (Code of Canon Law 1252). Fasting is also required on Good Friday.

Those fasting may eat one full meal and two smaller meals. Some Catholics eat only bread and water or fast completely. Others consider it a time to fast from usual practices or habits—such as watching TV, playing online games, reading and posting on social media—to pay more attention to God and have more time to pray.  

The traditional Lenten practices to prepare for Easter include prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Pope Francis said these “are not mere external practices,” but “paths that lead to the heart, to the core of our Christian life.” But he advised doing all these in secret, “for your Father sees in secret” (Matthew 6:4).

In sum, according to the Pope, the invitation that Jesus addresses to each of us at the beginning of Lent is: “Go to your room.” (That is, to your own secret room with God.)

Read more: Pope Francis: Learn from the Transfiguration of Jesus