Catholics marked the Feb. 22 start of Lent by attending Ash Wednesday Masses and beginning their spiritual preparations for Easter.
Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory was the principal celebrant and homilist and distributed ashes during a midday Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of people attended the Mass, one of several offered at the cathedral to mark the start of the penitential season.
The Mass was also livestreamed.
Lent is traditionally marked by almsgiving, fasting and prayer, which Cardinal Gregory called “weapons of self-restraint” in the battle against sin. “We must give alms secretly. We must pray inconspicuously. We must even fast joyfully,” he said. “These are not options.”
Of those practices, he said, “none of us – from the archbishop to the youngest in our midst – can find a better way, an easier option, for this journey to the very center of the mystery of God that is the season of Lent.”
Noting that the theme of the season of Lent is found clearly in the Mass’s Gospel reading (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18) in which the faithful are called to “take care not to perform righteous deeds so that others may see them,” the cardinal noted that “the Gospel does not even offer the possibility that any one of us would opt not to do these things.”
“These are not courses of actions that we may or may not accept – they belong to the very nature and season of Lent,” he said, adding that the Gospel is specific “on what we must do and how we must do it. Any alternatives just do not fit the Lenten pattern of living.”
He reminded the faithful that Lent is “a time in which we must choose life over death, charity over selfishness, intimate union with God rather than isolation.”
In blessing the ashes that were distributed during the Mass, Cardinal Gregory prayed that “through our steadfast observance of Lent, we may gain pardon for our sins and newness of life.”
The faithful, as they received the ashes, were reminded, “you are dust and to dust you shall return” or “to repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Ash Wednesday Mass marks the start of Lent, the 40-day penitential period in preparation for Easter. Lent this year continues until the Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday), April 7. Easter this year will be celebrated on Sunday, April 9.
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of total abstinence from meat, a law that binds all Catholics age 14 and older. It is also a day of fasting, that is, people are limited to one single full meal on that day. The law of fasting binds all Catholics from their 18th year until up to and including their 59th birthday. All Fridays of Lent are days of total abstinence from meat, a law that binds all Catholics age 14 and older.
During the Mass, prayers were offered for Bishop Juan Esposito-Garcia and Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala who were ordained the day before as auxiliary bishops of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington during a Mass at the cathedral; for the people of Ukraine who this week mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of their country; and for victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
During Lent, many parishes, Catholic schools and religious education programs participate in Catholic Relief Services’ Rice Bowl program. Catholic Relief Services is the U.S. bishops’ overseas humanitarian outreach.
Earlier this month, Cardinal Gregory encouraged people to support Catholic relief efforts following the devastating series of earthquakes and aftershocks in Syria and Turkey, which as of Feb. 22 has killed more than 48,000 people and injured upward of 80,000.
“Our hearts are stunned at the loss of life & injury in Turkey and Syria,” Cardinal Gregory said in a Feb. 7 tweet. “I invite you to support the efforts of CRS to respond to this crisis. I ask all of us to pray for these brothers & sisters who have endured such a tragedy. Let us bring them the hands & heart of Christ.”
The CRS Lenten program features a cardboard “rice bowl” that participants fill with coins during the Lenten season. The collected money is then presented to CRS. Seventy-five percent of the funds are used to support CRS programs around the world. The other 25 percent is returned to the diocese or archdiocese in which it was collected to be used for hunger and poverty alleviation programs on the local level.
