Hundreds of students of the Young Ladies Association of Charity (YLAC) receive the mark of the ash cross on their forehead as they attend the Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral in this Feb. 18, 2015 file photo.
ASHES will be marked on the foreheads of the faithful who attend Mass today as Catholics all over the world start the 40-day season of Lent with Ash Wednesday.
Msgr. Esteban Binghay, episcopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said ashes remind people about their origin and destiny.
“We are reminded that we are dust and unto dust we shall return,” he told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
Ashes also symbolize the call for repentance and the need to reunite oneself with the Lord.
The priest or a lay minister will impose ashes in the form of a cross on the forehead of each churchgoer, saying, “Repent and believe in the Gospel,” or, “Remember, man, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.”
The ashes used today are the ashes of burnt palms blessed during last year’s Palm Sunday.
The ashes are sprinkled with holy water or oil and smoked with incense.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma will preside over a Mass at the St. Joseph Chapel located inside his residence at 7 a.m. today.
Whether or not one has ashes on his or her forehead, Binghay said all Catholics are required to practice the “tripod” of Lent: fasting and abstinence, prayer, and almsgiving.
Catholics aged 18 to 60 are obliged to fast or to eat less on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting, however, has been relaxed for ailing people, Binghay said.
Fasting refers to eating only one complete meal and two smaller ones.
Also on Ash Wednesday and all Fridays of Lent, Catholics at least 14 years old are obliged to abstain from eating meat.
Binghay said fasting affects the “quantity of food intake,” while abstinence disturb the “quality of the food.”
“Fasting and abstinence should be taken spiritually. They should not be done in order to save money. Whatever we gain from these practices must be shared with others,” Binghay said.