LentWeekday

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday opens Lent with a summons to repentance. The ashes remind us of our mortality and our need for the mercy of Jesus. Begin the forty days with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; ask Mary for true contrition and a firm purpose of amendment, and choose the sacrifice through which you will return more fully to her Son.

Keep this day with Mary

The Church’s prayer today

United States Roman Calendar · Year B → Year C at Advent · Cycle I. Liturgical color: violet.

Scripture for the liturgy

Jl 2:12-18/2 Cor 5:20—6:2/Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 (219)

These references follow the annual calendar, including permitted reading choices. Optional memorials ordinarily retain the weekday readings. Daily reading pages for this future year may not yet be published. Use these references with the USCCB Bible, or open the annual calendar.

Renew the same consecration

Fidelity · Read with the saints

Every year at least, on the same day, they shall renew the same consecration, observing the same practices for three weeks. They may even, every month and every day, renew all that they have done, in these few words: Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt: I am all yours, and all that I have belongs to you, O my lovable Jesus, through Mary, your holy Mother.

St. Louis de Montfort · True Devotion §233 · excerpt

Make this prayer your own

I am all yours, and all that I have belongs to you, O my lovable Jesus, through Mary, your holy Mother.

St. Louis de Montfort · True Devotion to Mary §233

One faithful act

If you have made Montfort’s consecration, renew it with the words he gives.

Renew your consecration
Calendar scope and local observance

Dates, ranks, and reading references follow the official calendar for the dioceses of the United States, with Ascension on Sunday. Diocesan, parish, patronal, and religious-family calendars may differ. Consult your parish for Mass schedules and obligations. The Marian meditation is a devotional aid accompanying the day.

Sources for this teaching