Ash Wednesday Marks the Beginning of Lent

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of lent among Roman Catholics which occurs 46 days before Easter.

The Catholic tradition was based from the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, where Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Today, February 22, Catholics are being called to repent for the sins that they have committed and promise they would become better Christians in observance of Ash Wednesday.

As a symbolic gesture, ashes in cross signs are placed on the foreheads of the devout Catholic as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned.

Pedro Calungsod is Set to Become 2nd Filipino Saint

Pedro Calungsod is set to be canonized as second Filipino saint by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.

According to the Vatican Information Service, Calungsod (1654 – April 2, 1672), who got beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2000, was a “Filipino lay catechist and martyr.”

He was a 17-year old Roman Catholic Filipino migrant, sacristan and missionary catechist from Cebu, who along with Blessed Diego Luis de San Vitores, suffered religious persecution and martyrdom on Guam for their missionary work in 1672. Through Calungsod and San Vitores’ missionary efforts, many native Chamorros converted to Roman Catholicism.

Last Saturday, February 18, Pope Benedict XVI officially announced at Saint Peter’s Basilica during a mass that Calungsod will be canonised on October 21 together with 6 others.

Last October, the Filipino martyr passed the third and final stage towards sainthood after the Vatican verified a second miracle attributed to him—the healing of a businesswoman from the Visayas who fell into a coma in 2003.

After his canonization, Calungsod will become the second Filipino saint 24 years after the beatification of Lorenzo Ruiz, a missionary martyred in Japan in 1637.

Calungsod was killed at the age of 18 while doing his missionary work on April 2, 1627, a day before Palm Sunday that year.