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Catholic Sprouts, the daily podcast for Catholic kids that strives to plant seeds of faith.

Hey there, Sprouts. Today is Wednesday, March 5th, 2025. Today is also the beginning of Lent. Today is Ash Wednesday. Now all week we have been talking about Lent, about what we're called to do and what we

will experience during Lent. Today is a very special day. It is a day where we go to Holy Mass and the only

time all year that we receive ashes on our head,

which are highly symbolic and a really powerful reminder of who we are and what we are called to do during Lent.

So that's what we are going to be talking about today.

But before we dive into that, please join me in our March prayer, which is the Fatima prayer.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell.

Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy, amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

So Ash Wednesday.

Well, to understand what we do on Ash Wednesday, let's recall some of the stories that we hear in the Old Testament,

particularly when God sent Jonah to Nineveh. Now the story, the part of the story that we might

remember best is when Jonah refused to go. He was pitched off a ship and God sent a huge fish to swallow him. Jonah spent three days in the

belly of the fish before he was spit out and then only then decided to be obedient to God and actually

go to Nineveh. But the part of the story I want you to think about now is what happened in Nineveh.

Jonah thought, oh, these are wicked people.

There's no way they will repent and listen to me and listen to God.

But they did.

In fact, the people of Nineveh, what they did is they put on sack cloth, like if you think of really rough

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