Ash Wednesday and Reflections during Lent

As you know due to current Covid-19 restrictions it will not be possible to safely distribute ashes this year without asking people to leave their homes on Ash Wednesday. This restriction, however, will give us all an opportunity to reflect on what is truly at the heart of Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent; prayer, fasting and charitable works.

 

The Diocesan Pastoral Team has offered a prayer service that all can pray at home and which further promotes the development of the domestic Church. This Prayer Service can be found on the Armagh Prays website at the following link:

 

 

The team, with the assistance of Janet Forbes, has also produced a short video to accompany this service. In the video the children and teachers of St. Patrick’s Primary School, Ardboe, offer some ideas on how to pray the service at home. The children are attending school during current restrictions as their parents are key workers. This Ash Wednesday we pray for all key workers thanking them for the sacrifices they have made during the pandemic. We thank them for their generosity in helping us record this video which can be accessed through the following link: https://youtu.be/q2xeGI9iaJA.

The Diocesan Pastoral Team has produced a series of videos for Lent to help people reflect on their experience of Church, how they would like to see it develop in the future, and how they feel they could help to assist the Church. Each video contains the thoughts of a different individual or couple coming from diverse situations and contexts along with prayer and reflection. The videos will be uploaded each Wednesday during Lent, starting on Ash Wednesday, to all the Armagh Diocesan internet platforms: Archdiocese of Armagh Website, Facebook and YouTube pages as well as the Armagh Prays Website.