The pupils and staff of Mater Ecclesiae School, Hohoe Kpoeta in the Volta Region of Ghana, West Africa on March 5, 2025 celebrated a solemn Mass to mark the beginning of the Lenten season on their school’s campus.
Rev. Fr. Ernest Asigbetse, the stand-in Chaplain of the school took the opportunity to catechetize the children and staff on the reason we mark Ash Wednesday.
“We are not merely performing an empty ritual but an ancient practice or deep mystical significant that shakes the soul to its core” he said, indicating that it reveals the paradox of man.
Man is both infinite, yet carry the breath of God, he added.
“We place the ashes on the forehead because the head is the seat of the intellect,” he stated.
Fr. Asigbetse further explained that, it is a mark of kings and warriors, in ancient times prophets, kings and warriors smear ashes on their bodies as a sign of humility before battle or divine missions.
“So as we put ashes on our forehead we wage spiritual warfare against sin. Echoing the warriors of hope, who prepare for battle, we as soldiers of Christ match forward to conquer our weaknesses during this forty days of fasting, prayer and almsgiving.”
The sign of the ashes on our foreheads, he noted, serves as a reversal of the mark of Cain in Genesis 4.
“After the fall of Cain, he was marked by God as a sign of separation but on Ash Wednesday, we receive the mark that restores us, turning the symbol of exile into symbol of redemption,” he pointed out.
Adding, he said, “We are marked not for condemnation but for reconciliation. He explained.”
After the homily, the pupils and staff received ashes on their forehead to mark the day amid the singing of hymns of repentance.
Fr. Asigbetse prayed for the staff and pupils for a fruitful Lenten season and that they all benefit from it by overcoming their weaknesses.
By. Sr Bridget Kator SMMC ( Sister Communicator)
