Ash Wednesday

" Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return." Gn. 3:19


PETALING JAYA: Roman Catholics across the country started their annual 40-day fast, beginning with the commemoration of Ash Wednesday.

Known as Lent, devotees prepare for Easter by fasting and abstaining from certain foods, usually meat.

Catholics normally attend mass on Ash Wednesday where the priest would place ash on their foreheads in the sign of a cross to signify repentance.

In St Francis Xavier Church here, the ash was collected from palm leaves blessed in a prayer.

“The ash is a symbol that we acknowledge our sins and to ask God for grace and forgiveness,” said a church attendee who declined to be named.

The final week of Lent, known as Holy Week, is the holiest time in the church calendar which includes Maundy Thursday (to remember Jesus Christ’s last supper) and Good Friday (the crucifixion of Jesus).