Making ashes for the start of Lent
Cathedral burns last year’s palms that parishioners returned
As the chilly twilight faded into a starry New Mexico night above the bell towers of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi on Tuesday, dozens of parishioners gathered for an annual tradition: preparing the forehead grit for Ash Wednesday.
After a short prayer, the Rev. Adam Ortega y Ortiz, rector of the Cathedral Basilica, knelt to an outdoor fire pit full of palm fronds and struck the flame with a household lighter.
“Wow. That’s cool, Daddy,” one youngster said as the palms curled and charred and ash floated through the air.
“That’s always the mystery — where do the ashes come from? Well, you can buy them at some of the stores, but they charge an arm and a leg,” Ortega y Ortiz told the crowd in a quick speech just minutes before. “We do it the traditional way.”
And so be it solved, the first mystery of the Lenten season.
Whether the ashes are church- made or store bought, thousands of New Mexicans will attend Mass on Wednesday for the traditional start of Lent. Before day’s end, parishioners will wear a black smudge on their foreheads, the result of a priest’s swoosh of ash.
At the cathedral, before there is ash, there must be palm branches blessed on the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
Sister Anna Maria Lozano, pastoral associate of religious education for the cathedral, said the leaves are dropped off by parishioners, though it’s never known exactly how many fronds will be brought in.
“We ask the people to bring in their palm fronds during this [past] week and Sunday, and of course until Tuesday,” she said. The fronds brought in before the burning are stored in the parish office.
This year, parishioners filled three baskets full of the dried yellow fronds, some donated in their original form, others woven into little crosses by nimble fingers.
Other churches find ash in other ways.
“It depends on the pastor and the church,” said the Rev. Larry Brito, pastor of St. Anne’s Catholic church in Santa Fe. “Most churches purchase their ashes. There is not so much a ritual around it. … They order them from the local Catholic supply store.”
Once the blessed palms have been burned to crumbling crisps, the parish keeps the leftovers that don’t get used on Ash Wednesday.
“They’re sacred. The palms have been blessed,” said Gabriel Gabaldon, pastoral associate for liturgy at the cathedral. “We treat them with the respect and dignity because they have been blessed.”
Though familiar with the ritual of Ash Wednesday, some Roman Catholics said they didn’t know how the ashes were produced.
Josh Fernandez of Santa Fe said he prays every day but was unfamiliar with the ashes’ origins.
“I don’t know a whole lot but I should. … It’s been a while since I have gone to church on Ash Wednesday,” he said last week.
Mike Specht and Simon Reed, who both attend the cathedral regularly, said they appreciate that it cathedral makes its own ashes. Both grew up out of state and said they had never seen the ashes made in-house until they started attending church at St. Francis.
Asked if he thought that burning the palms makes Ash Wednesday more special, Specht replied: “Oh yeah.”
“Especially when you get your ashes, and you know those are your palms from home,” he added.
And while the yearly traditions are cyclical, parishioner Julie Rill said, they’re not stale.
“We repeat that cycle every year, but we also learn from it every year,” she said. “It’s not the same old Mass, the same old Lenten service. We learn and grow from it every year.”
Contact Andy Stiny at 505-9863007 or astiny@sfnewmexican.com. Contact Sami Edge at 505986-3055 or sedge@sfnewmexican.com.