Ash Wednesday, the official start of the penitential season of Lent in the Western Church, was created in the Roman Catholic tradition by Pope Gregory the Great in 601 A.D. in order to counter Eastern Church/Byzantine tradition that the Western version of Lent did not actually have forty days. The purpose of Lent is remarkably forthrightly stated in the office of Choral Evensong which was used at the Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist, Elora, Ontario. I used the following prayer from that congregation as the opening prayer for Ash Wednesday at my former parish. The prayer was adapted into English from the 8th C. version of the Gelasian Sacramentary, of the three primary sacramentaries in the Roman Church tradition.
O GOD, who by thy care and counsel for mankind hast moved thy Church
to appoint this holy season wherein the hearts of those who seek thee
may receive thy help and healing: We beseech thee so to purify us by thy discipline,
that, abiding in thee and thou in us, we may grow in grace and in the faith and
knowledge of thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I will have a longer discussion of the season of Lent in my blog post for First Sunday in Lent.
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