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News

Ash Wednesday services to be held today

Catholic Student Association observes start of Lent 
by hosting five services on campus

by MATT COOPER
The Daily Cougar

The Catholic Student Association will hold three masses and two prayer services for Ash Wednesday in the A.D. Bruce Religion Center.

Giovan Cuchapin, student minister for the Catholic Student Association, said that Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day preparation for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Catholics mark the day and their commitment to the preparations by smudging ash into the shape of a cross onto the forehead and not washing it off until sundown.

"Basically the formula for Ash Wednesday is ‘man, you are from dust and from dust you shall return," Cuchapin said. "That's the significance of the ashes."

He said that Lent is 40 days long because that is how long Jesus fasted in the desert. The idea is to sacrifice something important to foster a better understanding of Christian spirituality.

"You fast and in some sense it's like a dying of your worldly desires in order to focus yourself to the life of Jesus Christ," he said.

Ash Wednesday is preceded by Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras in French. 

Fat Tuesday celebrations typically include a large feast where in which people indulge themselves on what they are about to sacrifice.

Catholics traditionally abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Cuchapin said that Lent officially ends at dusk on Holy Thursday, the day on which Catholics commemorate Jesus' Last Supper. 

Modern-day Catholics aren't required to fast during all of Lent and accidentally eating meat on the wrong day is not considered a sin, he said. 

Cuchapin said accidental transgressions should still be made up for with acts of mercy, charity or prayer.

He said the important thing is that you sacrifice something important.

"Just give up something. You know like, you really, really like cheesecake. You give that up. You're not gonna eat cheesecake for 40 days," he said.

Cuchapin is giving up eating rice, something that he said, as a Filipino, is important to him.

"It's about dying from one's desires or one's worldly things."

The Ash Wednesday services will be at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Each service will last for one hour.

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