Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Christian penitential season of Lent.

And so I want to encourage not just every Catholic, but every Christian, to celebrate Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent itself.

Two quick qualifiers, though. First, I'm giving Eastern Orthodox Christians a pass on this one, because even though they don't celebrate Ash Wednesday, they do take

Lent, which they call the Great Fast, very seriously.

And in some cases, they fast from all meat, dairy, eggs, fish, and wine until Easter.

They just start Lent on Clean Monday instead of Ash Wednesday.

Second, if you want to start this sacrificial season off right, then consider sacrificing

a fraction of your time to like this video, leave a comment below, and hit the subscribe button.

Now, some people will say, why would Protestants celebrate Ash Wednesday? Isn't that just a Catholic

thing? Except it's not just a Catholic thing. It is true some Protestants

and evangelicals have a very strict regulation of worship. According to them, if it's not in

scripture, then they don't do it as part of their worship. That's why in the 17th century, Puritans in

Massachusetts banned Christmas, calling it a popish, unbiblical, pagan holiday.

However, Protestant traditions rooted in the classical reformation, both English and continental,

like Anglicanism, Methodism, and Lutheranism, and many branches of the Presbyterian denomination,

continue to celebrate Ash Wednesday and Lent as penitential season.

The Lutheran scholar Jordan Cooper writes,

The entire church celebrated this season throughout its history

until some Protestant groups rejected it in the 16th century.

To observe Lent is to connect oneself not only to the universal church on earth,

but to the historic church.

To reject Lent is to reject the piety of Christians for almost 2,000 years. So if you're critical of Catholicism just because

...