Distribution of Ashes Takes Place at 9:00 a.m. on February 17

Distribution of ashes will be different this year…

Instead of giving ashes as a cross on the forehead – unsafe in this COVID time – we can still receive them by sprinkling on the top of the head (permitted by our ritual rules). Sprinkling ashes on the crown of the head recalls the biblical method of putting on sackcloth and ashes as a sign of penance: “Now on the twenty fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth upon their heads” (Neh 9:1).

We will look a little cleaner. We can still repent, and believe in the Gospel. We will still bear ashes home to begin our Lenten practices, borne of our hearts.

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