The Lenten season begins with four services on March 9 at Evans Chapel.
Ecumenical services will be held at 7:45 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., and Roman Catholic services will be at noon and 9 p.m.
DU Chaplain Gary Brower will be leading the ecumenical services. John Ignatius, an area priest who works with DU’s Fellowship of Catholic University Students chapter will lead the Catholic services.
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, the 40-day period (excluding Sundays) that precedes Easter. It is a period of participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus through “prayer, repentance and self-denial,” Brower says.
“The 40-day period mirrors the 40 days that, according to the New Testament, Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness between his baptism and the beginning of the public ministry, as well as the 40 years that the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness between their exodus from Egypt and their entry into the Promised Land,” Brower says.
Because Ash Wednesday is of special significance for Christians, allowing opportunities for members of the DU community to celebrate it is important, Brower explains. The early morning and late afternoon services are especially set for people heading into or leaving work who may not have other chances to make an off-campus service, he says.
During services, ashes mark the foreheads of participants in the shape of a cross, a sacrificial symbolism referring to penance.