Remember That You Are Dust, and to Dust You Shall Return

​The Maronite Lenten season begins with the “Entrance into Great Lent” on the Wedding Feast at Cana Sunday which was yesterday. The fast starts today, February 15, Ash Monday. Today, the Maronite Church, all over the world, blesses and distributes ashes. During the Divine Liturgy, the priest blesses the ashes with a special prayer and kneads it in Holy water. At the end of the Liturgy, the faithful are blessed with the ashes in the form of a cross on their forehead with the priest saying: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”