Megan Fehrenbach ’22
Ash Wednesday begins the Catholic season of Lent each year, usually happening in February or early March. This year, Ash Wednesday falls on February 17, and it was the first time that Catholics participated in Ash Wednesday during the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, the pandemic began in mid March, and Ash Wednesday had already passed. Now, Catholics will be attending Ash Wednesday masses and prayer services, but there will be notable changes. Instead of priests using their thumbs to make a cross on parishioners’ foreheads using ash of palms, they will be using other techniques such as sprinkling ashes over attendants’ heads. As strange as this practice may seem, it is not entirely new to the Catholic Church. In Ancient Rome, ashes were thrown all over the heads of the Catholics. This tradition is unfamiliar to everyone today, but it allows Catholics to stay safe and socially distanced through the pandemic. At Oak Knoll, the Mass on Ash Wednesday did not include the distribution of communion or of ashes, so students and teachers had to attend prayer services or masses at their local parishes.
As for the entire season of Lent, masses will most likely continue on as they have these past few months during the pandemic. Last year, the pandemic began during the season of Lent, so we are somewhat familiar with how the pandemic affects this season of the Church. The severity of the pandemic has changed, however, so there will be differences between Lent 2020 and Lent 2021. With Christmas in 2020, most parishes had online registrations for parishioners to attend mass. This will likely be the same for Easter. Hopefully, with the distribution of the vaccine becoming available to more and more citizens, the pandemic will not last through the next season of Lent; however, we must make do with the situation we are currently in.