Lenten season begins

Editor's note: This story corrects mistakes in the Feb. 28 article "Churches mark Ash Wednesday with services across Bloomington."\nChurches around Bloomington celebrated Ash Wednesday yesterday along with the rest of the world.\nAsh Wednesday marks the first day of the Lenten period in Christianity, particularly the Catholic faith. Lent is the 40 days before Easter Sunday .\nThe Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Episcopal Churches formally celebrate Ash Wednesday.\n"Ash Wednesday for us is the official start for the season of Lent, a period of fasting for Christ's resurrection, which will come on Easter Sunday," said Susan Schramm, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.\nLent also remembers the 40 days Jesus Christ wandered in the desert, fasting and meditating.\nChristians believe during this time Satan tried to tempt him, urging him to change rocks into bread, bow to the devil to receive earthly kingdoms and to cast himself from the top of the temple in Jerusalem to test God, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia.\nLent is a time when Christians renew their commitment to religion by looking at their lives and making any alterations they see necessary, Schramm said.\n"The season of Lent is a time to look inside and to continue spiritual growth," said Mark Erdosy, pastoral associate for St. Paul's Catholic Center. "I have always likened it to spring cleaning. It is a good time of year to open up the windows of our souls."\nFather Dan Atkins, pastor at St. Paul's Catholic Center, said Ash Wednesday "is first of all a way to prepare for Easter."\n"The other thing is that there are people who are going to enter the Church, they are going through an intense time, it is our way of showing solidarity," he said.\n Catholics celebrate Ash Wednesday by attending Ash Wednesday mass. Ash Wednesday is also one of two days of fast during the Lenten season, Erdosy said. The other is Good Friday.\nA fast is considered a day when a person only has one full meal. Two other smaller meals may be taken during the day in accordance to one's needs. Together these two smaller meals should not equal another full meal.\n Ash Wednesday mass is distinguished from regular mass in that it includes a ritual known as the Distribution of Ashes. In this ritual, the priest will draw a cross of ashes on the parishioners' foreheads while saying "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."\nThe Distribution of Ashes occurs just before the parishioners take communion and leave. \nAtkins said the ashes "symbolize our humility before God and our repentance form our sins; they also remind us of our mortality."\nThere is no ceremony for the removal of the ashes. \n"They stay on until they disappear or when you take a shower the next day," Atkins said.\nThe ashes are made from the palm fronds that were used in last year's Palm Sunday celebration. They are collected after the Palm Sunday services, burned and then blessed.\nMany churchgoers believe that the Distribution of Ashes plays an important reminder to people about the human condition and mortality. \n"When the priest puts the ashes he says 'from dust to dust,' reminding us of our place, fellow travelers to the grave," Bloomington resident Scott French said, who attended the 5 p.m. service at St. Paul's.\nIn an effort to accommodate as many members of the university community as possible, an Ecumenical Ash Wednesday Service was held at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.\nMembers of the clergy from four different denominations took part in the service in a gesture of solidarity and goodwill between the churches.\nAshes were distributed at the service but no communion was given because it was an ecumenical service.\nThe churches participating in the service included St. Paul's Catholic Center, Trinity Episcopal Church, Lutheran Campus Ministry and Center for University Ministry.\nErdosy believed the ecumenical service to be a success because it brought "people from different religious traditions coming together and celebrating the beginning of Lent"