Ash Wednesday!

I promised this post on Tuesday and then I got busy with grad school and never posted it. 

(found this picture on pinterest) 

Ash Wednesday was this past Wednesday! I grew up in North Florida and when I was in high school, I would always go to mass the morning of Ash Wednesday. After church, I would head back to school with my ashes on my forehead. Many of my friends knew as soon as they saw me, "Oh its Ash Wednesday" 

So what is Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in Western Christianity, which begins 40 days before Easter. In the gospels of Matthew, Mark & Luke, before the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert fasting and resisting temptation. Lent is a 40 day period of prayer and fasting in the Catholic Church. I actually just recently learned that many other Christians celebrate Lent too. 

Usually, if you are taking part in the 40 days of prayer and fasting, people give something up until Easter like candy and cookies or you can also do something extra like spend 15 minutes in prayer a day. This is a great time to go deeper in faith and I always feel that I am able to enter more fully into the joy of Easter after giving up sweets for 40 days. After all Easter is where Jesus dies and rises for us! 

This year, I am trying to add more time for prayer and reflection. With grad school, I've been so busy so this is going to be good for me. Anyways, just a lil quick info on Ash Wednesday!

Thanks for stoppin by,

xoxo Jen.