February 13, 2018

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MILWAUKEE — A Roman Catholic Mass and two other services to observe Ash Wednesday, one of the most important holy days in the liturgical calendar, will be held on Feb. 14 in Marquette University's Chapel of the Holy Family.

The Catholic Mass will be held at noon. An ecumenical service with ashes will be held at 4 p.m. and a Lutheran service will be held at 5:30 p.m. All three observances will be held in the chapel, located in the Alumni Memorial Union, 1442 W. Wisconsin Ave.

Marquette University's Ash Wednesday Mass for our Catholic, Jesuit community distributes black ashes that are made from burning the palms distributed on Palm Sunday the year before.

In addition, Church of the Gesu will hold an Ash Wednesday Mass at 7 p.m. on Feb. 14.

The Catholic Masses are sponsored by Marquette's Office of Campus Ministry.

Throughout campus, Ash Wednesday is a day where the university emphasizes prayer, fasting and almsgiving to observe the solemn beginning of the Lenten journey. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head, symbolizing the dust from which God made us.

Pope Francis, in his 2018 Lenten Message, said, "I urge the members of the Church to take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer. If, at times, the flame of charity seems to die in our own hearts, know that this is never the case in the heart of God! He constantly gives us a chance to begin loving anew."

Media interested in covering the noon or 4 p.m. observances at Chapel of the Holy Family should contact Christopher Stolarski at (414) 288-6060 or at christopher.stolarski@marquette.edu