CRANSTON - Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, 40 days of prayer, fasting and almsgiving which are to serve as preparation for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
According to the "Catholic Encyclopedia," "Foreheads are marked with ashes to humble us and remind us that life on Earth ends. 'Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.'"
Father Anthony W. Verdelotti, pastor of St. Mark Church, said young people, particularly the confirmation candidates at his parish, seemed to have many questions about the season of Lent, especially about Ash Wednesday and the specifics of the process that leads to the sign of the cross being put on their forehead with ashes.
While many parishes purchase the ashes of burned Palm Sunday palms from local religious stores, Father Verdelotti sensed a valuable opportunity for a teaching moment - and a way to personalize it. Last year prior to Ash Wednesday, he asked parishioners to bring their palms from the previous year's Palm Sunday Mass back to the church for a special ceremony in which they could all engage. The blessed palms, which had adorned their homes throughout the year, he told them, were to be recycled into the blessed ashes to be distributed that Ash Wednesday at St. Mark's and they were all welcome to participate.
The response was even greater than Father Verdelotti had expected, with palm fronds mounded in the parish courtyard and about 500 of the parish's 1,650 families showing up for the palm-burning ceremony which is now a popular tradition at St. Mark's.
"We received even more palms than we could use last year," Father Verdelotti said. "I think the ceremony made people more aware of the reality of the 'palms of praise' becoming the 'ashes of penance.' That their palms were becoming those ashes, was something in which they took a certain amount of pride."
Father Verdelotti was especially pleased that entire families are showing up for the ceremony, which begins with a blessing of the fire.
This year's palm-burning ceremony took place on Sunday, Feb. 11, after the 11 a.m. Mass. As he did the previous year, Father Verdelotti gathered with hundreds of parishioners in the courtyard where the palms brought to the church during the previous days awaited them. He recited this opening prayer:
"God of love and mercy. You sent your son to show us the light of your face and glory of salvation. As we prepare to enter these 40 days, we ask you to bless us. Help us to be faithful in our prayer, fervent in our fasting and generous in our almsgiving. We hear your voice calling us to the 40 days of Lent and we cry back with steadfast joy."
Placing the first branches on a hibachi which he purchased specifically for the ceremony, Father Verdelotti lit the fire offering the following blessing as flames began to consume the palms. "Bless this fire as it changes these branches of triumph into ashes of penance. As we move through these 40 days in the shadow of the cross, may we never lose sight of the Resurrection."
Assisted by parish volunteers, he continued to feed the flame with the palm branches until a sufficient amount of ashes were accumulated for blessing with holy water and distribution at the parish on Feb. 21 at Masses at 8 a.m., noon and 6 p.m.
Following the Feb. 11 ceremony, parish volunteers gathered the ashes and pounded them into a fine, powder which was then stored, awaiting the parish's Ash Wednesday Masses, Father Verdelotti said.
"The ceremony lends a visible sign of the words of the prayer, 'Change these branches of triumph into ashes of penance.' I think those words say it all."
Father Verdelotti, who is also the director of Catholic Cemeteries, said that sometimes wearing two hats is an advantage. Palms which were not used in the ceremony at St. Mark's are buried with the recently deceased faithful, placed at the bottom of their open graves prior to their burial in cemeteries throughout the diocese.
(This article originally appeared in The Providence Visitor)
