What Ashes Really Mean

Ashes in Scripture

Ashes were used in bible times as an outward sign of an internal disposition. They signified : Mourning, despair, desperation, anguish, loss, and repentance. In Isaiah 61:3 ashes represent the opposite of celebration. "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair". In Daniel 9, Daniel turned to the Lord God in prayer and pleaded for mercy with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. In 2 Samuel 13 , Tamar poured ashes over her head after she was raped by her half-brother Amnon, expressing her deep anguish. Job repented in ashes after losing everything. Jesus said that if the miracles performed in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, “they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes”.

Ash Wednesday Liturgy

Ashes are used once a year in our Catholic Church.The liturgical colors for Ash  Wednesday,  purple and black, call to mind that we are entering a season of preparation and a time of fasting, almsgiving, detachment and repentance. The readings for Ash Wednesday tell us about conversion, renewal, reconciliation and sincerity of heart. In the first reading we are called to Return to God with all your heart (Joel 2:1–2, 12–17:). In the responsorial psalm, we ask God to "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new spirit within me" (Psalm 51:1–17). In the Gospel, Jesus says, “Don't flaunt your fasting and prayer; store up treasure in heaven" (Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21). 

After communion we will use ashes made from the burned palm branches distributed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year. The priest will bless the ashes and smear them on our foreheads. Making the sign of the cross he will say, "Remember, man you are dust and to dust you shall return," or "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." .

Ashes of the Deceased

The church now recognizes that there are valid reasons why some people may choose cremation. Cremation is significantly cheaper than a traditional burial, often costing less than half the price of typical casket burial. As of 2025, 42 percent of Catholic funerals are for people who opted for cremation. 

There are still regulations that the Church gives regarding cremation. The ashes of a deceased Catholic should be treated with the same dignity and respect as an intact body. This includes burying the ashes in a sacred place, such as a cemetery or columbarium. The ashes should not be scattered, kept at home, or divided among family members. 

When I become Ashes

Destruction, that is the meaning of Ashes. Ashes will be me in the future, I too will become ground down into small, ugly, grey dust and buried in a box. Not a nice thought, but one that I must accept as true. Will my ashes be a sign of my last act of repentance or a reminder for the sad onlookers that they too must repent? 

Romano Guardini on Ashes

To end this short meditation on ashes I would like to use an excerpt from the great Fr. Romano Guardini who wrote a small pamphlet called Sacred Signs. In it he has a section called  ‘Ashes’.

At the edge of a wood stands a larkspur, its deep green leaves characteristically rounded, and with delicately bending, yet firmly formed, slender, stem.  The blossom seems as if cut out of heavy silk, of a blue as deep as a gem, so that the whole air around seems filled with it.  Someone comes and plucks the flower, and then, getting tired of it, throws it on the fire.  In a few moments the whole bright splendour has become a small streak of grey ash.

And what the fire has done here in a few moments, that time does constantly to all that is alive; to the dainty fern, to the tall mullein, to the mighty, upstanding oak.  It does the same to the light butterfly and the swift flying swallow; to the agile little squirrel and to the massive ox; always it is the same, whether faster or slower.  It may come from a wound or from sickness, from fire, or starvation, or what not; but sooner or later all glowing life becomes mere ash.

From the strong form, a trembling handful of dust, which a puff of wind will scatter.  From the shining colours, a grey powder.  From the warm, growing, feeling life, barren, dead earth, less than earth – ashes!

So it is with us also.  Do we not shudder when we look into an open grave and see, besides some bones, a few handfuls of grey ash?

‘Remember, Man, that thou art dust;

And to dust shalt thou return.’

Destruction, that is the meaning of Ashes.

Our destruction, not that of others.  Ours – mine!  They speak to me of my passing away, when the priest, on the first day of Lent, marks my forehead with ashes which were fresh green branches on the previous Palm Sunday.

‘Memento, homo, quia pulvis es

Et in pulverem reverteris.’

All will become ashes.  My house, my clothes, my goods, my money; field and heath and forest; the dog that runs at my side, the cattle in the stall; the hand with which I write, the seeing eye, and my whole body; people I have loved, people I have hated, people I have feared; whatever has seemed to me on earth to be great, or to be small, or to be contemptible: all, ashes – all!

(Fr. Romano Guardini, Sacred Signs)