[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2458-2459]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             ASH WEDNESDAY

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to speak for a few minutes as if 
in morning business. It is on a broad topic. It is about this day and 
what this is.
  It seems kind of interesting when we start to celebrate things like 
St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day. What is the basis? Why do we do 
these things? There is always this kind of digging into it to find a 
very interesting story.
  For St. Valentine's Day, we celebrate it recognizing a priest who 
married people in Rome when it was forbidden. The Emperor at the time 
was not given enough soldiers to sign up for the military because they 
wanted to get married, have families, and stay home with their 
families. So the Emperor decreed that nobody could get married. The 
priest said: I don't agree with that. So he quietly and secretly 
married a number of people and was then later arrested, incarcerated, 
and beheaded for having done this nice, wonderful thing. It is a great 
reminder of what Valentine's Day is about when we send cards.
  Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday. A number of people of different 
faiths celebrate Ash Wednesday.
  What is Ash Wednesday about? It comes from a number of references in 
the Bible, particularly in Genesis where it says, ``Dust thou art, and 
into dust thou shalt return''.
  It is a recognition of the symbolism of what we physically are, and 
how the physical body ends up.
  This comes from the Web page of EWTN about Ash Wednesday: ``The 
liturgical use of ashes originated in the Old Testament times. Ashes 
symbolized mourning, mortality, and penance. In the Book of Esther, 
Mordecai put on sackcloth and ashes when he heard of the decree of the 
King to kill all of the Jewish people in the Persian Empire. (Esther 
4:1). Job repented in sackcloth and ashes. (Job 42:6). Prophesying the 
Babylonian captivity of Jerusalem, Daniel wrote, ``I turned to the Lord 
God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.'' 
(Daniel 9:3). Jesus made reference to ashes, ``If the miracles worked 
in you had taken place in Tyre and Sidon, they would have reformed in 
sackcloth and ashes long ago.'' (Matthew 11:21).
  In the Middle Ages, the priest would bless the dying person with holy 
water, saying, ``Remember that thou art dust and to dust thou shalt 
return.'' The Church adapted the use of ashes to mark the beginning of 
the penitential season of Lent, when we remember our mortality and 
mourn for our sins. In the present liturgy for Ash Wednesday, it 
remembers that as well.
  I simply rise to remind us of what the symbolism is, if we go around 
the hallways and see people with ashes on their foreheads. The 
symbolism there is about the mortality of each of us, that from dust we 
came and to dust we return. And it is a symbolism and a day of 
reflecting on our own sins and our own needs. I think maybe that is a 
useful thing for us to do as a nation, to reflect on what we have done 
right, and what we have done wrong, and see what we can do better as we 
move forward.
  So this day of Ash Wednesday seems to be a good day for us to reflect 
on our own mortality, our own sinfulness, and what we can do to be 
better both individually and as a nation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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