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February 14, 2018

Faithful find time for ashes, Mass on Valentine’s Day

REGIONAL
Story and photos by Rebecca Drake

Father John Roach (left) and Msgr. Christopher Connelly distribute ashes during the 12:10 Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield.

 

 

SPRINGFIELD – By some accounts, today was the first time since 1945 that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fell on the same day.

But the coexistence of the sacred and secular observances provided no conflict for Catholics in the Springfield Diocese who attended Masses in their parishes and at St. Michael’s Cathedral in downtown Springfield.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the penitential season of Lent and is typically one of the most well-attended liturgies in the church calendar.

“It seems to me that one of the most compelling sacramentals that the church offers is ashes and people go to churches and shrines and chapels and fill up those places to receive those ashes, I think, as a reminder that all of us are imperfect but we’re all striving for holiness,” said Msgr. Christopher Connelly, rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral and vicar general for the Springfield Diocese. He celebrated the 12:10 Mass at the cathedral on Ash Wednesday.

“Those ashes on our forehead help to remind us that little by little, maybe not overnight, maybe not in a week, maybe not even in the 40 days of Lent, but eventually we hope to grow in holiness and perfection,” Msgr. Connelly told iObserve before beginning the Mass. In his homily during the Mass, he suggested ways in which the faithful could carry out the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

“All of us can think of somebody that we need to pray for,” he told the congregation. “It might be nice if each were to take every day a different person and just offer one prayer for a different person each day.”

“In addition to prayer, the church invites us to fast, to abstain, to give up those foods and things that we really don’t need,” he said. “But in addition to foods, perhaps we could give up things that make us less than who we are: to fast from resentment and anger and worry and jealousy and all those things that hinder us in our growth in Christian life.”

And Msgr. Connelly suggested that, in addition to financial charity, Christians might “simply have good, holy and kind thoughts of one another.”

“And maybe Lent gives us that opportunity to grow in holiness and prayer, in fasting, charity and kindness, that we might grow closer to God and closer to one another these 40 days,” he said during the homily.

In his homily, and in comments to iObserve, Msgr. Connelly also stressed that holiness is for all people, “not just for the cloistered monk or the nun in a monastery.”

“Maybe these days of Lent help us in our own broken humanity to grow in God’s gift of holiness,” he said.

St. Michael’s Cathedral parishioner Cynthia Roberson was present at the 12:10 Mass and said that attending Ash Wednesday has been a tradition for her since she was an elementary school student at the former Holy Family School in Springfield, where she attended Mass and received ashes along with her entire class.

“Lent for me basically is for giving up something that I really need to give up and to continue on with it for the rest of my life,” said Roberson. She also said she will continue with the devotions she has developed over the years, including going to daily Mass and saying the rosary before Mass, with the addition during Lent of attending the Stations of the Cross on Fridays.

Commenting on the large numbers of worshippers who go to Mas on Ash Wednesday, Roberson said it is “probably because they want to give their heart and soul back to God and the whole thing is that you want to be able to come through for God, to be able to do something for him, to show that you’re worshipping, and also to bring your love.”    

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