I left the church still a lapsed Catholic. But I must say that between Philip and Anna and what I observed this Ash Wednesday, I have more faith in mankind than I did before I got there.

Ashes are moistened with holy water and placed on churchgoers’ foreheads on Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Hellertown.

Fr. Kevin Nolan blesses his parishioners with a mark of the cross during Ash Wednesday Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Pedro on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

Rev. Amanda Hambrick-Ashcraft, a minister at Middle Church, holds a jar of ash and glitter near the Stonewall Inn National Monument in Manhattan, New York, on Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) — Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, prayer and reflection in preparation of Easter. St. Peter Catholic Church celebrated with many services.

Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer, fasting and almsgiving that marks the start of the six weeks of penitence before Easter, known as Lent. For many Christians, its start is noted by receiving ...

Pews were packed at an Ash Wednesday mass led by Miami’s Archbishop Thomas Wenski at Broward’s oldest Catholic Church earlier this afternoon. The mass, held at St. Anthony Catholic Church in ...

Rev. Stephen Hamilton, pastor, traces a cross on the forehead of a woman during an Ash Wednesday service at St. Monica Catholic Church in Edmond, Oklahoma on Wednesday, March 5, 2014.

For 20 years, Pius XI Catholic High School has invited the archbishop to preside over its Ash Wednesday Mass. For his very first Mass in his new position, Grob invited a special guest: his mom.

It is a tradition that goes back centuries, but at St. Pius V Church, at 1901 S. Ashland Ave. in the Pilsen neighborhood, some young Catholics from the adjoining school attended an Ash Wednesday ...

Rev. Gregory Wilson, pastor at St. Mary’s Help of Christians Catholic church in Aiken, South Carolina, offers believers two things to consider when observing Ash Wednesday: prayer and sacrifice.