The sacred season of penance begins

To the 80 percent of our population—the 80 million who are baptized Catholics (and Aglipayans and High Church Anglicans and Episcopalians)—today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

We go to Mass and before or after the Holy Eucharist we present ourselves to the priest to be marked with ashes moistened with chrism (blessed holy oil). The more zealous priest makes the mark, not just a thumb-size black dot or a smudge, but one in the shape of a cross. When he applies it on our foreheads, he says a humbling reminder: “Remember, Man is dust and to dust you shall return.”