Catholics mark Ash Wednesday

Today, the Catholic Church begins the Lenten season by dabbing ashes on the foreheads of the faithful as a reminder of their mortality and the need to repent for their sins.

Catholic faithful are also urged to offer prayers for peace, with Pope John Paul II enjoining all Catholics to observe Ash Wednesday as a day of prayer and fasting for peace.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) suggested that March 5-12 be celebrated as a week of prayer and sacrifice for peace.

"The world situation is very delicate and dangerous. There is a real and serious threat of war because of the situation regarding Iraq," said CBCP president Orlando Quevedo.

Quevedo proposed that Catholic faithful offer their prayers for peace by attending Mass, praying the rosary and observing abstinence today. They could also do these, as well as say a novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, asking for peace, from March 6 to 12.

Catholics are also reminded by the Church to fast, and to begin their prayers and pleadings for divine mercy and the forgiveness of their sins.

As in the past, the ashes to be used in today’s Lenten ritual will be blessed three times with holy water and incense before they are distributed among the faithful.

The ashes, made by burning last year’s palaspas (palm fronds used to commemorate Palm Sunday), are gathered and turned into a paste with a sprinkling of holy water. The paste will be dabbed on the foreheads of the faithful by a priest as he recites the passage from the book of Genesis that says, "From dust thou came, to dust thou shall return."

In the early days, at the beginning of Lent, a bishop had penitents guilty of serious, public sins wear sackcloth and ashes for 40 days. Penitents expiated their sins in cinere et cilicio (in sackcloth and ashes), awaiting sacramental reconciliation on Maundy Thursday.

The imposition of ashes, as we know it today, is now extended to all Catholics without exception. It was Pope Urban VI who ordered at the Council of Beneventum in 1901 that ashes should be received by all the faithful and not only by those who were required to perform public penance of their serious sins.

The ashes are dabbed in the form of the Sign of the Cross on the foreheads of the faithful to remind them of the humble beginning and the common end of man.

Fasting is also the order of the day, but the Catholic Church warns that the faithful should take heed of today’s gospel reading, from Matt. 6:16-18: "And whenever you fast do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Meanwhile, the CBCP National Secretariat for Social Action-Justice & Peace (NASSA) is set to launch a Lenten campaign in Mindanao on March 7.

Dubbed "Alay Kapwa," the campaign will be launched in the diocese of Butuan and is a reiteration of the Philippine Catholic Church’s effort and peace-building and conflict resolution in the country, especially in Mindanao.

Now on its 29th year, "Alay Kapwa" is an evangelization and resource generation campaign administered by NASSA.

The campaign this year aims to ensure the continuity of the spirit of the 4th World Meeting of Families, which emphasized the role of the family as an instrument for peace.

Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, in his Lenten message, asked for prayer and repentance to resolve the threat of war.

"Lenten prayer finds a particular expression in seeking God’s forgiveness for the sins of individuals, communities and nations, for the ongoing situations of injustice and violence and for the conflicts and wars that today threaten the entire world," Franco said.

NASSA chairman Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez believes that the campaign will help bring tranquility to war-torn Mindanao.

Donations of participating Catholic schools and organizations, and 80 social action centers nationwide, is used to finance development projects and relief operations for victims of disaster.

Last year’s campaign garnered P1.674 million as of Feb. 17 this year.