A TRADITION RETURNS | Parishioners of St. John the Evangelist Cathedral in Dagupan City join in the burning of old palms in 2022. The ash will be used in today’s services which begin Lenten season. (File photo by WILLIE LOMIBAO / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
MANILA, Philippines — For this year’s Ash Wednesday, Catholic churches around the country will return to the traditional practice of the priest marking churchgoers with ash on their foreheads.
In the Archdiocese of Manila, churches are resuming the Ash Wednesday rite for the first time since the pandemic.
Due to COVID-19 protocols in the past two years, the Church leadership has allowed priests to either sprinkle ash on the head, use a cotton ball to put the ash on the forehead or allow the faithful to put ash on their heads themselves while hearing online Mass.
“We will revert to the imposition of ashes on the forehead of the faithful,” the Archdiocese of Manila through its Liturgical Commission instructed its priests and lay ministers in a circular dated Feb. 14.
‘Liturgical celebration’
The Manila Archdiocese advised priests to “discourage self-imposition of ashes,” stressing the rite is “always done in the context of a liturgical celebration.”
“It derives its meaning from the proclamation of the Word and prayers. We receive the ashes because the call to repentance is addressed to us by Christ through the Church,” read the circular signed by Fr. Carmelo Arada Jr., the Manila Archdiocese liturgical commission’s vice chancellor.
But the archdiocese allowed priests and ministers to administer the imposition of ashes on the sick and the elderly who are physically unable to go to church.
A similar directive was issued in the Diocese of Kalibo on Feb. 20, but it said “the sprinkling of the blessed ashes on the crown of the head remains an option.”
Lenten season
“The practice of the celebration of Ash Wednesday is reverted to its usual manner. Our faithful are strongly encouraged to return to in-person liturgical celebrations and to receive ashes in the context of the Mass,” wrote Fr. Justy More, director of the Kalibo Diocese liturgical commission.
Ash Wednesday, which falls this year on Feb. 22, ushers in the annual 40-day Lenten season, a period of fasting, penitence, and good deeds for Catholics.
This period will culminate in Holy Week and Easter Sunday to mark Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection.
In the Ash Wednesday Mass, the priest will use the ashes from the palm branches used in the previous year’s Palm Sunday to make the sign of the cross on the churchgoer’s forehead while saying, “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” or their translation.
CHANGE IN PRACTICE | At a Mass in February 2021, the second year of the pandemic, a priest sprinkles ash over the head of a churchgoer. (File photo by MARK ALVIC ESPLANA)
In 2021, the second year of the pandemic, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines issued guidelines on the observance of Ash Wednesday amid the lockdown of churches.
Meanwhile, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) has released a survey showing that 35 percent of Filipino Catholics pray several times a day while 34 percent pray once daily.
Ten percent pray several times a week, 6 percent weekly, 4 percent a few times a month and 2 percent nearly every week.
The SWS also found that 38 percent attend religious services once or more than once a week, 24 percent attend two or more times a month, 20 percent said they attend religious services once a month, 9 percent go a few times each year, 7 percent attend once a year and 3 percent said they never go to religious services.