Ash Wednesday

Dear Parishioners,

I am glad that Lent is here. It officially begins on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 with Ash Wednesday. I personally need to practice a bit more penance in my life and to focus more on the suffering and death of Jesus. I can take too much for granted—even the mercy of God that has been shown to me! I need to find additional time for prayer, fasting and almsgiving as the Gospel reminds all of us. If used the way it is intended, this Lenten season can be a period of personal spiritual growth and allows for proper preparation for Holy Week and Easter. 

Speaking with brutal honesty, however, there is one thing that really annoys me. It is those multiple phone calls that come to most parishes on Ash Wednesday asking: “Father, what time are ashes?” Why is there a tremendous preoccupation with ashes? Why can’t the question be: “What time is Mass?” or “When can I receive Holy Communion?” What is it about those ashes?

Ashes, after all, are a reminder of our mortality:  Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. They also tell us of our need to do penance:  Repent, and believe in the Gospel.

It is my hope that people do not see ashes (burnt palm) as something that they “need to get,” above and beyond the desire to attend Mass and to receive Holy Communion on Ash Wednesday (or on any given Sunday for that matter). That is the reason why I actually prefer not to have only a Liturgy of the Word service with the distribution of ashes. My thought process is this: some burnt palm on the forehead (a sacramental) is significantly less important than receiving Jesus, the Bread of Life, in Holy Communion.

Masses (with the distribution of ashes) on Ash Wednesday are at 9 AM and 4:30 PM. Also, please remember that Ash Wednesday is a day of fasting (one full meal) and abstinence from eating meat. With Good Friday, these are the only two days that we are required by the Church to fast during the entire year! As Catholics, unfortunately, I think we have lost the concept of what it means to do serious penance for our sins. Many of us tend to do only that which is minimally required, at best.

You have heard me preach time and again that we need to take advantage of the opportunity for the Sacrament of Penance (confession) on a regular basis. My recommendation is monthly confession. If you can go an entire month without sinning—and that includes “in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and what I have failed to do”—I want you for my spiritual director! I want your advice and counsel because I can’t seem to achieve this!

With the world in the condition that it is in and the vast majority of Catholics lukewarm in the practice of the faith, we need to take seriously the call to turn away from sin, to repent and to follow the Gospel.

Ash Wednesday and Lent are a great time to start!

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor