I would like to know the significance of ashes being placed on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. I am a Methodist and my church imposed the ashes (for the 1st time). Is there any biblical reference to the imposing of the ashes?

The imposition of ashes on the foreheads of Christians is an ancient Christian practice, going back at least to the 10th century. Biblically, ashes are a symbols of purification and penitence (see Numbers 19:9, 17; Hebrews 9:13; Jonah 3:6; Matthew 11:21, and Luke 10:13 ).

In the early church, people who had been separated from the church because of serious sins might seek to be re-admitted to the fellowship by observing a formal period of penitence during Lent. These people were generally sprinkled with ashes or given rough garments sprinkled with ashes as a sign of their sorrow for their sins.

Beginning in the tenth century, the observance of Ash Wednesday became a general rite for the church. The ashes, which were a symbol of purification in the Old Testament, remind us that we are mortal. In many churches the ashes are made by burning the palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday. Ashes are placed on the forehead, usually in the sign of a cross, in a ritual known as the Imposition of Ashes. As the ashes are placed on the forehead, words such as these are spoken: "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return," recalling God's words to Adam in Genesis 3:19.

-- Lynn W. Gilliam
Editor of Pockets
The Upper Room

Julian of Norwich, a late fourteenth-century mystic and spiritual writer, chose to live a solitary life in a cell attached to the Church of Saint Julian in Norwich, England. Because Julian was known for her wisdom, seekers approached the window of her cell to ask her questions about Christian faith and practice.

Learn more about Julian by reading Encounter with God's Love: Selected Writings of Julian of Norwich from Upper Room Books.