Lent officially begins on Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2025). This is a day when we meditate on our mortality and need for salvation, turn toward God in repentance and commitment, and joyfully remember that God has already turned toward us with mercy in Jesus. As he bore our sin in his body on the cross, we have the sign of the cross imposed upon us with ashes. The ashes represent our human frailty, our need for grace, and our hope that the Holy Spirit breathes the new life of Christ into us.