Ash Wednesday falls on March 2 this year.
Published on: Monday February 28, 2022
From: Nikko Fabian
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Credit: lifeteen.com
Kota Kinabalu: The Christian community in Sabah will again observe Ash Wednesday this week (March 2). For Christians, especially Roman Catholics, Ash Wednesday is a day of penance, which should be marked by fasting and abstinence from meat. This also marks the start of the 40-day season of Lent. Lent is a solemn religious observance in the Christian liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days that Jesus Christ fasted in the desert.
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It is also a time of reflection and preparation before the Easter celebrations. In observing the 40 days of Lent, Christians replicate the sacrifice and withdrawal of Jesus Christ into the desert for 40 days and the faithful mark the solemn observance with fasting, both of food and of festivities. The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Kota Kinabalu in its official Facebook (FB) account announced the scheduled mass as follows: Detailed Mass times as follows: – English (Mass) 6:00 a.m. – English (Mass) 12:00 p.m.
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– BM (Misa) 7:30 p.m. Note: No individual confession on March 2. The announcement also indicates that there will be no mandatory registration for all masses scheduled on Wednesday. No announcement has been made by Church authorities whether forehead ash marking will be permitted this year. Last year, priests sprinkled ashes on the heads of worshipers in Sabah during the Ash Wednesday celebration. Based on guidelines issued by the Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops-Episcopal Commission for Liturgy (CBCP-ECL), priests will once again wipe ashes from the foreheads of the faithful under the sign of the cross. “The formula for the imposition of ashes ‘Repent and believe the gospel’ or ‘Remember that you are dust and you will return to dust’ is only said once when applying it to all in general. We will return to the imposition of ashes on the foreheads of the faithful,” reads part of the statement signed by the President of the Commission, Bishop Victor Bendico.
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