DEVOUT Filipino Catholics start their 40-day Lenten season today, February 22, with Ash Wednesday.
Parishioners flocked to churches as restrictions brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic eased.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has said it did not issue standard guidelines for the observance of Ash Wednesday this year.
CBCP President Bishop and Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan said they left it to individual bishops how to conduct the imposition of the ashes.
“We are merely issuing a special thanksgiving prayer that will be prayed from Feb. 11, World Day of the Sick, until Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22,” David said.
Bishop David was referring to the “Litany of Gratitude After the COVID pandemic.” The Litany replaced the Oratio Imperata Against COVID-19 issued by the CBCP at the height of the pandemic.
Pandemic Ash Wednesdays
During the first two years of the pandemic, the Catholic Church stopped the imposition of ashes on the forehead.
Instead, the faithful are given small plastic sachets containing ashes to the faithful. They were also required to wear face masks and refrain from holding hands. Last year, priests sprinkled ashes on the crown, while some priests were also allowed to put ashes directly on the forehead.
Other Catholic places like the Vatican, Italy, and Croatia dropped ash on the head from a few inches away.
Manila Archdiocese
As for the Manila Archdiocese, they said they are reverting to the imposition of ashes on the forehead of the faithful.
Priests and “extraordinary ministers of the Holy Communion” may visit the sick and the elderly for the imposition of ashes.
“Let us discourage self-imposition of ashes,” Father Carmelo Arada Jr., vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Manila, said in his letter.
“We receive the ashes because the call for repentance is addressed to us by Christ through the Church and it is also through the ministry of the Church that we are reconciled with God and each other,” Fr. Arada explained.
Why commemorate Ash Wednesday
Catholics regard ashes as a symbol of both mortality and repentance.
As ashes are placed on the forehead, priests and lay ministers would draw a cross, uttering the words “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
The ashes are made from burned palms in the previous year’s Palm Sunday celebration. The ashes are blessed with Holy Water and exposed with incense before the Ash Wednesday celebration.
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During his homily at the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene, Rev. Fr. Earl Allyson Valdez reminded the faithful to reflect on all the things they have received and done—through the Lord and for the Lord.
“Ang tunay na diwa ng kwaresma ay ang pag-alala na ang lahat ay nagmula sa Diyos at sa Diyos lamang dapat ibabalik lahat” said. Reports by Manilyn Olbes
