Ash Wednesday falls on March 2 this year
Published on: Monday, February 28, 2022
By: Nikko Fabian
Credit: lifeteen.com
Kota Kinabalu: The Christian community in Sabah will once again observe Ash Wednesday this week (March 2).To Christians, particularly Roman Catholics, Ash Wednesday is a day of penance, to be marked by fasting and abstinence from meat. It also signal the start of the 40-day Lent season.
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Lent is a solemn religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus Christ spent fasting in the desert.
It is also a season of reflection and preparation before the celebrations of Easter.
By observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days and faithful mark the solemn observance by fasting, both from food and festivities.
The Kota Kinabalu Sacred Heart Cathedral in its official Facebook (FB) account announced the scheduled mass as follows:
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Mass Schedules detailed as follows:
- English (Mass) 6am
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- English (Mass) 12pm
- BM (Misa) 7.30pm
Note: No individual confession on March 2.
The announcement also said there will be no required registration for all the scheduled holy mass on Wednesday.
No announcement has been made by Church authorities if marking of ashes on the forehead will be allowed this year.
Last year, priests sprinkled ashes on the head of faithful in Sabah during the observance of Ash Wednesday.
Based on the guidelines issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Liturgy (CBCP-ECL), priests will again swipe ashes on the foreheads of churchgoers in the sign of the cross.
“The formula for the imposition of ashes ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel,’ or ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’ is said only once applying it to all in general. We will revert to the imposition of ashes on the forehead of the faithful,” said part of the statement which was signed by the Commission’s chairperson, Bishop Victor Bendico.
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