It’s Ash Wednesday on 6 March. It is the first day of Lent, taking place 46 days before Easter Sunday.

Coming from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, Ash Wednesday is so-called because the practice includes the wearing of ashes on the forehead. The ashes symbolise the dust from which God made us. As Fr Dominic or Fr Antonio applies the ashes to a person’s forehead, he says: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Alternatively, the priest may say: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

There will be three Masses on Ash Wednesday:

• 7:00 am at St Teresa’s
• 9:15 am at St Teresa’s
• 7:30 pm at Ss John Fisher and Thomas More