CAMDEN – Calling the day one “not only to mark our foreheads, but to mark our hearts with the sign of conversion,” Father Adam Cichoski, rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated Ash Wednesday on Feb. 22, starting off the Lenten penitential season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in the Catholic Church.
Lent concludes at sundown Holy Thursday, April 6, followed by the Paschal Triduum and Easter Sunday on April 9.
These 40 days are “a time of hope, as we await the coming Easter celebration, where we know Christ will be victorious through the Cross and the Resurrection,” he preached during the Mass, which was celebrated in English and Spanish.
PHOTO GALLERY: Ash Wednesday at Camden’s Cathedral
In striving to “convert, reshape, reform” our hearts, and by receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, he said, “we can re-adjust our focus … and live just as Christ is asking us.”
Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and asking God to forgive our sins, “’we experience God’s mercy and his call to conversion,” while at the same time strengthening “our resolve to follow the example that Christ has set for us,” Father Cichoski said. “We also remember that we need the Eucharist, his Body and Blood, to feed us and sustain us this Lent, so that we can endure the crosses that we carry.”
By making spiritual conversion a priority this season, “We will truly have Christ with us as we contend with the evil one and temptations. … [Christ] shows us the way, if we have the courage to follow,” Father Cichoski continued.
“May our fasting and prayer this day be that sign for ourselves and for the world, that we are in this struggle together and that the victory is always through Christ our Lord.”
In addition to blessing the ashes for distribution, Father Cichoski blessed the parish’s Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowls, which are used in the social service agency’s annual campaign to end hunger and malnourishment throughout the world. He invited all the faithful who filled the Cathedral’s pews to take one of the Rice Bowls home and fill it generously during Lent. He prayed that the congregation “continue to give of ourselves, through these next 40 days, to all of our brothers and sisters here in our community and throughout the entire world.”
One of those receiving ashes at the Cathedral was Angeliyz Rosario, a Camden resident, Cathedral parishioner and Rutgers University sophomore health and sciences major.
She said she is looking forward to the upcoming weeks, because for the first time, she’s “taking the faith into my own hands.”
“Weekly Mass used to be a family thing, but now I’m furthering my faith more independently, going [to Mass] on Sundays,” she said. “I’m excited for Lent and this journey of renewal,” she said, adding that she’s “going to try to pray the Rosary every day” during this season.
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