Editorial note — Chapter VIII · OF CONSECRATIONS AND UNCTIONS

[Footnote 537: S. James v, 24.] [Footnote 538: 'On this day also ashes are blessed, and scattered over the head in token of humiliation. "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return," was said unto Adam (Gen. iv). And Job "repented in dust and ashes" (Job xlii, 6). And the Lord saith, "In the house of Aphrah (marg. read dust) roll thyself in the dust" (Mic. i 10). Also in Judith we read, "The children of Israel humbled themselves in fasting, and dust on their heads" (Chronicles iv). And Abraham saith, "Shall I speak unto the Lord, who am but dust and ashes?" (Gen. 18). And "Mordecai put on sackcloth with ashes" (Esther iv, i). And "the daughters of Zion have cast ashes on their heads" (Samuel iii). Hence, we read in the Pontifical, penitents and the dying, in token of repentance and humility and that they are dust and ashes, do prostrate themselves in ashes and put on sackcloth—an use drawn from the Old Testament. For we read in Isaiah the fifty-eighth, that penitents do lie in sackcloth and ashes. And Hieremiah saith the same in the twenty-fifth chapter, "Wallow yourselves in the ashes, for the days are accomplished." Also in the third of Jonah, "The king of Ninevah put on sackcloth and sat in ashes." Also in the Lamentations, "The virgins of Jerusalem are clothed in sackcloth."'—Rationale vi, 28, 18.]