Faithful 'check' behavior for Lent

People are called to give up something during the 40-day Lenten season, but Father Grant Wiseman challenges his congregants to take up something, as well.

Wiseman, rector at St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church, said it is his practice to urge church members to add something to their everyday routine that will help others or enrich their spiritual lives while also traditionally observing Lent by forgoing certain pleasures.

Foods such as chocolate or meat, alcohol and certain behavioral habits are popular indulgences the faithful attempt to avoid in the days leading up to Easter.

The start of Lent is marked by Ash Wednesday in Western Christian churches, and St. Thaddeus and St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic churches were among places of worship where Ash Wednesday services were held.

"The Lenten season is really calling us to check on ourselves," Wiseman said after the Ash Wednesday service.

Local resident Jane Alger is checking herself by giving up Facebook, a popular social networking website, during Lent.

She signed on more than a year ago and found herself spending more and more time on the website when she could be doing other, more productive things.

A friend of hers attempted it last year but lasted only 72 hours.

Alger posted a status update that she was taking a hiatus and included her e-mail address so friends could contact her that way. She is not giving up the computer or the Internet altogether, just Facebook.

"I am hoping this starts a discipline for me. It is pointless if you give up something then go right back to it after Lent. The goal for me is to become a better person," she said.

About 150 people gathered in the sanctuary to receive holy communion and kneel at the alter rail to receive the sign of the cross in ashes upon their foreheads. The mark serves as a sign of repentance and a reminder of mortality.

The ashes are traditionally made from the palms from last year's Palm Sunday.

Wiseman and curate the Rev. Joseph Whitehurst said to those who received the ashes, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

"We talk about the fact that we are dust, and we will return to dust. Even as God was forming us out of dust, God breathed his spirit into us and gave us a part of himself. We are called to look at our lives and all the stuff that is cluttering up our lives that keeps us from a relationship with God," Whitehurst said.

Wiseman thinks something happens during Lent season that equals greater attendance at church services, including Ash Wednesday services.

"There is such a different, unique mood now more than any other great religious celebration, like Christmas," he said.

The self-denial associated with Lent spawned pre-Lenten celebrations such as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Carnivale as the last days to eat, drink and be merry before the period of abstinence begins.