ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997            TAG: 9702130049
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER

TODAY, BELIEVERS LOOK TO LENT FOR PEACE AS WELL AS PENANCE

THE ANCIENT RITE of marking worshipers' heads with ashes marks the first day of Lent, leading up to Easter.

It has been a few years since Teresa Reed has been able to participate in an Ash Wednesday service at Our Lady of Nazareth Catholic Church.

For the last five or six years, her duties as a mother "kept me so busy with everything" that there never seemed to be time to participate in the ancient rite, Reed, 37, said Wednesday.

But this year, with her children now 11 and 13, she had time to come out with friend Mary Kent to have the Rev. Tim Huffman mark her forehead with ashes in the sign of the Cross.

Following the noon service, she would leave the black mark on her face the rest of the day, Reed said, "as a reminder [to herself and others] of what this day is" - the beginning of a penitential and reflective period leading up to the most important Christian holiday: Easter.

Ash Wednesday - and the season it begins, Lent - originated in the Roman Catholic Church, in which its observance continues to be an obligation. Some Protestant churches, notably many of the so-called mainline or old-line denominations such as Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist, also observe both Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent.

Some other Protestant denominations, in their zeal to eliminate most of the vestiges of Catholicism, did away with Lent, in part because its observance is not described in the New Testament.

The custom of marking a penitent's head with ashes dates back to an early church ceremony in which Christians who had committed "grave faults" were required to perform their penance in public. According to the Internet resource Catholic Online, those early church penitents were required to wear a hairshirt during the 40 days - not counting Sundays - before Easter.

Forty days was a significant symbolic number in the Bible, associated with the fasts of Moses before approaching God on Mount Sinai and Jesus in the desert before the start of his ministry.

On Ash Wednesday, the bishop would bless the hairshirts and then would sprinkle ashes - created by burning the palm fronds used during the previous year's Palm Sunday celebration - over the penitents' heads.

The transgressors then were removed from the church and were not allowed to return until the Thursday before Easter Sunday, when the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples is celebrated.

Eventually, all parishioners joined in the observance of Ash Wednesday in recognition of the Christian doctrine that "all have sinned," and they were no longer required to stay out of church for the entire period.

Today, the ashes - which also symbolize human mortality - are moistened, usually with oil, and the priest or minister marks each participant's forehead with the sign of the Cross.

Traditionally, the entire period of Lent was to be devoted to fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

The idea, as Huffman pointed out in his sermon Wednesday, was to "orient us to correct Christian lives" focused on putting "our needs in subjugation to others and to God."

Although the Lenten season is often viewed as a somber time of self-discipline, Huffman referred to it as "this joyful season of introspection and grace."

That was a sentiment parishioner Robert Canfield agreed with.

Lent is a time of remembering "what is really important in life," he said, those things for which "we should give thanks" rather than be sad.

The "busy-ness" of life can distract believers from things they intend to do, Canfield said, such as prayer or giving - materially and personally - to others.

Likewise, fasting can help the practitioner focus mentally and spiritually, enhance a sense of connection to suffering in the world and help loosen the grip of materialism, he said.

"It makes you stop and think," he said.

LENGTH: Medium:   77 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  CINDY PINKSTON STAFF. Father Tim Huffman marks a cross 
          with ashes on Charles Hanich's forehead at Our Lady of Nazareth 
          Catholic Church on Wednesday. color.