Show SACRIFICIAL DAYS ARE HERE This Is Ash Wednesday and the Len Lenten Lenten ten Period Begun B gun CEREMONIES FOR TODAY HOW CUSTOM ORIGiNATED AND WHAT IT MEANS Penitents inthe in the a EpIscopal churches will wiil today k at the altars in prayer This is Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent the season of fasting Special and appropriate services will be beheld beheld held in various churches which observe Lent While the penitents are in prayer their heads will be sprinkled with conse consecrated consecrated crated ashes In the Roman Botnan Catholic church the priest wIll consecrate the ashes on the altar Holy water will be besprinkled I sprinkled upon the ashes the sIgn of the I cross Is made over them and they will be blessed The members of the congregation congregation tion and clergy who arc admitted to pen penance penance ance will be sprinkled with them This is the ceremony the origInation of which is to Gregory the Great Immediately after this ceremony which will be at a m in mass win will be cele celebrated celebrated nt at St Marys cathedral ThIs dis distribution distribution of the ash s will be 1 in St Pauls Episcopal at 7 this morning followed by holy communIon Ion lU lL at dl 4 8 0 0 vauA P These LU U o mark A the fh u P commencement of Lent SpecIal Lenten service will be held in St Marys cathedral Wednesdays and Fridays At these the s of the eras cross Win will be worshipped The regular Sunday service win will be h held ld as u usual ual Ash Wednesday win will be observed in St Marks cathedral today with morning prayer Litany and penitential offices will be celebrated at n 11 this morn morning lag ing Litany service with discourse win will willbe be celebrated at 73 FrIday even evening lug ing Special prayer service will wiIl be con conducted conducted ducted at 4 Saturday afternoon The Lenten services will be held Mon Men Mondays days clays and Tuesdays in St Pauls church Holy communion will be celebrated Thursday mornings at 10 and Fri Friday Friday day evenings at The re lar Sunday services will be held as USUal usual Origin of Lent Ages ago when ChrIstianity was In Its Infancy the observance of a season ot of fasting was begun ThIs was In n corn com commemoratIon of ChrIsts forty days fast The season ot of tasting fasting Is still sUll observed by many of the Christian churches This an annual annual nual observance has become obligatory In Inthe Inthe the orthodox Gra Grack k Lutheran and Ho Homan man Catholic churches This annual sea season season son of tasting fasting Is called Lent Lent opens en cn Ash Wednesday and closes on Easter I Sunday a period of about days The western church does not Include the Sundays as they are consid consi considered ered days of fasting In themselves hence the number of fast days is reduced to forty Observance of Former Days The observance of Lent irs 16 ot confined to special church services Zealous Chris Christans Christians tans in olden days placed ashes upon theIr heads and dressed in garments of sackcloth as marks of humiliation Fast Fasting FastIng ing and prayers were indulged in strictly of today take upon then them themselves selves a certain simplicity The whirl af f society will be put aside during this thi sea seaf f Cn Parties will bE tabooed The boxes I at tha theatre will contain none of the strict observers Receptions balls and suppers will be substituted by masses and hours of prayer The more zealous will carry their devotion further b by modifying their dress The belle will layaway lay away her glittering jewels Frivolity will give way to earnestness The young girl will munch not at her eternal bonbons will come with Easter A As Christ walked from the gloom of the tomb tenth in into to the sunlight the sombre will willbe willbe be fo otten in the brightness of the Easter Easter ter morn mom |