Priest reminds Catholic faithful of 'meaning' of Ash Wednesday

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1063758
• Thursday, March 7, 2019

By Leah Agonoy (PNA)

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur -- As Ash Wednesday opens the Lenten season, the Catholic faithful were reminded that it is the time for fasting, prayer and perform acts of charity.

“Repent and believe the gospel,” Rev. Fr. Rolando Allan Onden said as he put a cross using ashes on Catholic believers’ foreheads during the Ash Wednesday Mass at the Sto. Niño Cathedral in this city.

In his homily, Onden said Ash Wednesday is the start of fasting and abstinence pointing to each individual to “not being imprisoned in our physical desire, which is a way to cleanse our hearts.”

He added that practicing the acts of mercy could be sharing “of the food that we will not eat today and we give them instead to the poor and hungry.”

The cross on the forehead “reminds us that we will go back to ashes,” he said.

Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting using ashes of the branches blessed on Palm Sunday on the previous year.

“These branches are now browned, made to ashes and are not good to look at, like us in imperfections and sins,” the priest said.

He said the placing of the cross using ashes on the forehead is not a private affair but a community act, showing publicly each individual’s penance.