Serving Christ and Connecting Catholics in Western North Carolina
American Catholics will begin Lent a little differently this year by having blessed ashes sprinkled over our heads rather than placed on our foreheads in the form of a cross. The sprinkling of ashes on the crown of the head is a very old tradition still followed in Rome, though rarely in the United States. An instruction from the Vatican on how to safely celebrate Ash Wednesday in the midst of the pandemic has introduced many Catholics to this practice for the first time.
Lent is a season of fasting and abstinence, but Lent is more than about substituting bacon for salmon. For a Lenten meditation, let’s take a look at the Book of Jonah – it’s a 20-minute read of four chapters, but a life-changer for Jonah and for us!