Reminding the faithful that Lent this year occurs during the Jubilee Year of Mercy and thus they are called to be more merciful to one another, Cardinal Donald Wuerl celebrated a Feb. 10 Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington.
“We begin Lent this year with a special gift – the jubilee Year of Mercy,” Cardinal Wuerl said. “We want to live this jubilee and be merciful like our Father in heaven is merciful.”
Cardinal Wuerl was the principal celebrant and homilist and distributed ashes during a midday Mass at the cathedral. A standing-room-only crowd attended the Mass, one of seven offered at the downtown cathedral that day to mark the start of Lent. The cardinal reminded the faithful that Pope Francis, in Misericordiae Vultus – the document announcing the Jubilee Year of Mercy – called for the Lenten season this jubilee year to be “lived more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate and experience God’s mercy.”
Calling Lent “a journey that brings us to the cross and then Jesus’s resurrection and our hope for new life,” Cardinal Wuerl reminded those at the Mass that these 40 days are a time “to share mercy, kindness and compassion with others.”
He said that as the faithful draw closer to God during this penitential season, they should “find a moment to be merciful to others, find a moment to simply be compassionate.”
Cardinal Wuerl said that the ashes – placed on the forehead in the sign of the cross – are “a sign of our frailty and a sign of our need for God’s mercy.” In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, he added, the ashes are also a reminder “that God’s mercy is available for all of us.”
He also told the faithful that as they seek reconciliation with God, they should avail themselves of Confession and the Archdiocese of Washington’s The Light is On for You” program.
Through the “The Light is On for You” Lenten Confession initiative now in its 10th year, Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Washington and Diocese of Arlington will be open for Confessions and quiet prayer every Wednesday evening, in addition to the regularly scheduled Confessions held in each parish. Churches will be open for Confessions and prayer on Feb. 17 and 24 and March 2, 9, and 16.
“When you go to these churches, you will find a priest waiting to hear Confessions,” Cardinal Wuerl said. “Confession is available to each one of us and to anyone we invite to experience that love.”
After the Mass, Luisa Rodman said that she would take to heart the cardinal’s call to be more merciful. “This year we are particularly reminded to be more merciful, but it (being merciful) is something that we should always do without being reminded,” she said.
For Oleta Mercedes, the mercy of God is what she relies on “when it is hard to keep going.”
“Sometimes I feel the only thing I have left to trust in is God’s mercy,” she said.
Cardinal Wuerl, in blessing the faithful at the end of Mass, prayed that they would “gain pardon of sins and newness of life.”
Lent this year ends on Good Friday, March 25. Easter this year is Sunday, March 27.
The Archdiocese of Washington’s special website for the Year of Mercy, mercy.adw.org includes a list of resources and reflections on mercy, and people can share their Year of Mercy experiences via social media at #EncounterMercy.
