Ash Wednesday Reflections at Resurrection

“Remember that you are dust and into dust you shall return.”

With those words, Reverend Monsignor Edward O’Donnell and his fellow priests at Rye’s Church of the Resurrection usher in the traditional Lenten season,  gently rubbing ashes into the foreheads of parishioners.

Ash Wednesday marks the traditional season of Lent in honor of the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert praying and fasting during Biblical times. During Lent, the Church urges its faithful to reflect a spirit of penance in their daily life by performing acts of fast and abstinence.

Resurrection priests offered suggestions for Lenten practices and so did their parishioners ...

Reverend Monsignor Edward O’Donnell and Fathers Robert Verrigni, Zacharias Nadackal, Joseph Lim, Thomas Collins and Andrew Sioleti collectively suggested the following for Catholics:

Pray the Stations of the Cross; visit an elderly or homebound friend or relative; and perform an act of mercy-especially an unexpected one every day of Lent.

Abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Fridays, or give up some other food for Lent.  Donate what you save from fasting and abstaining from meat to a needy food pantry such as Holy Rosary in nearby Port Chester or POTS (Part of the Solution charity) in the Fordham section of the Bronx.

Parishioners of area churches have some intriguing Lenten practices of their own.

Annie Budd, 91,  of Rye, has been giving up cake and cookies every Lenten season for the past 85 years.

“If I didn’t make a sacrifice of something I liked, Lent would be just like any other day and I wouldn’t be honoring the God of my faith for his 40 days of prayer and fasting in the desert," said Budd. " I wouldn’t be honoring Jesus for dying for our sins on the cross. I wouldn’t be preparing my mind, my heart, my body and my soul for the feast of Christ’s Resurrection at Easter, the end of Lent, ”

Budd paused, as though staring back into her past. “That’s the way my mother described Lent to me when I was a little girl of five or six,” she said. “I believed her then. I believe her now.”

“I promised myself to abstain from being depressed,” said Amelia Kulenty. “I had a stroke and have difficulty remembering. That depresses me. So I offer up my stroke-related difficulties for Lent and try to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, especially for the close friends in my life who try to make my life better.  Especially when I feel alone. I will try to control my anger and rage over what happened. And I promised myself that for Lent, at least, I will try not to be depressed.”

“It sounds childish, but I try to give up chocolate for Lent, and have every Lent for years now,” said  Liz Harris. “It requires great discipline because I love chocolate. And sometimes when I wake up late at night, I really yearn for that chocolate. I have to confess that sometimes I give in to that urge. But I try to abstain. I really do. But sleep deprivation and pain make you do strange things. ”

One woman –who declined to be named for obvious reasons –simply said, “I give up men for Lent.”

Thomas Roche, director of Resurrection’s Parish Religious Education Program (PREP) –said he didn’t give up anything for Lent. Instead he paraphrased an Old Testament saying, “God requires no sacrifices and oblations, instead He wants you to be kind to widows and orphans.”

“In other words, live your whole life doing good unto others as you would have them do good unto you,” said Roche. "Strive to become better Christians every day of our lives. And without being holier than thou, or anyone else, that is how I try to live every day.”

Following the recent Sunday 12:30 p.m. Mass, one of the Resurrection priests took that thinking a step further.

“Build your life on the solid foundation of God and Christian living, not on shifting worldly sand,” said Rev. Andrew Sioleti. “ I prefer the alternative to the ashes to ashes, dust to dust line . . . ‘Repent and believe in the good and living God. And live and act accordingly. Always. In all ways.' "

Ashes will be distributed during Masses at 7, 8 and 9 a.m., noon, 3 and 3:50 p.m., and 7:30 p.m.  today.

Further information: The Church of the Resurrection, 910 Boston Post Rd., phone: 967-0142; www.resurrectionrye.com.