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

Hey there, Sprouts.

Today is Wednesday, February 26th, 2020.

It is also Ash Wednesday.

So if you have yet to, I encourage you to go to Mass today because today is a very special service, a very special

holy Mass, where you will receive ashes on your forehead.

And today is also, of course, the very first day of Lent.

So in case you don't know, let's go through why we do this very strange thing at mass today.

Why do you get ashes on your forehead? Well, to understand this, we have to go all the way back

to the Old Testament. Various characters in the Old Testament, when something really terrible happened, or when they realized for the first time that they had done something terrible, they marked that moment by putting ashes on their head.

Oftentimes they would also rip their garments or dress differently, but they always marked it by putting ashes or dust on their head.

Now, why would they do this crazy thing?

Well, putting ashes on your head symbolizes the low point.

It symbolizes that this is the bottom. I cannot go any further down and I'm going to start

turning around and making a change. So when you put ashes on your head, you are marking the

end of something and the beginning of something else. So that's why we get ashes on our forehead.

We are marking the end of all of these bad habits, these sins that we have been doing over

and over again. We're marking the end of it. And we're saying, I am turning around right here. I'm not going one more step

further away from God. I'm turning around and I'm going to start walking back toward God.

So that's what that means. It comes all the way from the Old Testament. Also, the ashes

symbolize that we are human beings, that we won't live

forever. So yes, we're marking this point. We're going to turn around and walk in another

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