When: Wednesday, March 9th, 2011.
Web: The parish's ADW listing is here; its own website is here.
We attended the 7:30pm Ash Wednesday Mass at the church in the Cathedral Heights/Cleveland Park area of DC. The church was packed with congregants for this Mass at which ashes are blessed and administered to people. Though not a Holy Day of Obligation, many Catholics attend Ash Wednesday Mass to receive the ashes and, perhaps in some cases, from a mistaken belief that it is a Holy Day. In any case, it was wonderful to have the church full. The congregation was largely white, though with many minorities.
A single priest celebrated Mass with the assistance of a cantor, organist, two readers, and altar server. The Mass followed the standard rite, with the addition of the blessing and administration of the Ashes. In his homily, the priest asked us not to make Lent solely an internal spiritual journey, but to share it with others. In particular, he called us to invite someone back to church during the next 40 days. This was a challenging but worthy note on which to begin the Lenten season.