St. Mary’s sets two Ash Wednesday services

Detail of stained glass window at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Manchester

submitted by St. Mary’s

Is it a smudge? Or is it the sign of a cross? Among the Catholic practices of Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday, particularly visible is ashes on the foreheads of Catholics. They are marked by the priest in the form of a cross.

The people of St Mary, Manchester, invite any and all in the community to join them as they begin the 40-day journey of Lent on Ash Wednesday, March 1, at the parish church on the Village Green, across from the Gazebo. There will be two Masses that day: at 8:30 am and 7 pm. During each of these Masses following the homily, ashes from last year’s burned palms are blessed and then those in attendance are invited to come forward for the “imposition of ashes” as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting, and human mortality. The ashes signify the desire to enter into the desert with Jesus and journey with Him for forty days. The priest says one of two things as he imposes the ashes: “Remember, you are dust, and to dust you will return.” Or “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”

Catholics seek to fall more deeply in love with our LORD through the spiritual disciplines of Lent. Lent is a season that calls us to forego the noise and visual distractions of the world that interfere with us hearing the LORD as He calls to us and seeks to enter into a deeper relationship with us. It is a time to “give something up” and also to practice special acts of kindness. All of this makes sense when you consider that the holy and solemn season of Lent is a time when Catholics seek ever more earnestly to “draw close to God so that He may draw close to us,” as it says in the Sacred Scriptures (James 4:8). And this shift away from more earthly pleasures is given shape by the traditional Lenten practices of “prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.”

The people of St. Mary invite all of their friends and neighbors in the Manchester area to share in the Ash Wednesday Mass and to begin the season of Lent. They also invite all to join them on the Friday evenings of Lent at 7 pm to pray the Stations of the Cross, remembering Jesus’ journey to Calvary.

“De profúndis clamávi ad te, Dómine: Dómine, exáudi vocem meam.” (Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord: Lord hear my voice.)

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.