St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center expects to see thousands of Catholics today for Ash Wednesday mass.
Tucked into the corner of West University Avenue and Northwest 18th Street, the church will have special mass at 7 a.m., noon, 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
A small group of priests and other religious leaders will file up an aisle that bisects 24 rows of pews to the front of the congregation. They’ll stop just in front of a depiction of Christ, crucified on a heavy cross. After a homily — the sermon — Catholics will flow out of pews to the front of the congregation to receive ashes. With right thumbs dusted with palm ash, the leaders draw a simple cross onto sinners’ foreheads.
“This is a symbol to remember we are nobody, we are nothing, we are only ashes,” said Father Marek Dzien. “At the end of our life, we will be ashes, and only what counts is what you did during this life.”
Traditionally, these ashes are from burned palms collected in the previous year’s Palm Sunday. Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent, 40 days where Christians embrace life changes to prepare for Easter.
“Lent is supposed to be a moment of reconciliation for our own sin,” said 20-year-old Kenneth Fernandez.
Fernandez is a UF nuclear engineering sophomore who plays violin for St. Augustine’s Spanish mass. He’s been receiving ashes for so long, he doesn’t remember the first time.
“Loved is probably the best way to say it,” he said. “I feel like this symbolizes how God loves us.”
