As we celebrate Purim this year, we should embrace both the joy and the responsibility that come with it. Mordechai’s leadership teaches us that true strength lies not in masking ourselves, but in ...

In the Old Testament, ashes were often paired with the wearing of sackcloth — an uncomfortable, scratchy fabric. Together, “sackcloth and ashes” represented several human conditions ...

When pronouncing these judgments, Jesus makes reference to sackcloth and ashes as a form of penitence. As early as the ninth ...

During that time they did acts of penance, like extra praying and fasting, and lying “in sackcloth and ashes,” as an outward action expressing interior sorrow and repentance. The customary ...

They abstain from food and wear sackcloth and ashes as a sign of mourning and penance. They are liturgically literate and ritually right. They want to draw closer to God, and this is the way they ...

The tradition of receiving ashes originates from biblical times when wearing sackcloth and ashes symbolized repentance. The ashes, made from the burned palm fronds of the previous year's Palm ...

The purpose of ashes dates back to early Roman practices, according to britannica.com. Serious sinners and penitents began a public penance on the first day of Lent. These people wore sackcloth ...