Gonzaga celebrates Ash Wednesday with interfaith participation

News Story by Mia Gallegos | FāVS News

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Gonzaga University’s Ash Wednesday celebration and distribution opportunities have created this pinnacle holiday within the Catholic tradition into an interfaith experience that everyone is invited to participate in.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the Lenten season in the Catholic calendar year, signifying the beginning of a contemplative 40-day period that leads to Holy Week and Easter Sunday. While both GU and St. Aloysius Catholic Church have several opportunities for Mass on Ash Wednesday, the Office of Mission and Ministry has several ash distribution areas set up around campus at many hours of the day.

“Students can get the ashes at various spots around campus through 7 o’clock on the night of Ash Wednesday,” said Terry Randles, the office coordinator for the GU’s Office of Mission and Ministry.

She explained how it is not merely Catholics who will be marking students’ foreheads and uttering the words “you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Several other faith affiliations will be represented at the distribution areas.

The Office of Mission and Ministry has a variety of denominations represented within it, warranting a bit more of a diverse outreach to the various religious students represented on GU’s campus.

However, this may not be the only reason that the interest and participation in the holiday has seemingly increased throughout the years.

Randles explained how she feels as though a large part of Gonzaga’s Catholic population — which only makes up a quarter of the school’s students — aren’t the only ones showing up to Ash Wednesday Mass. Rather, she has seen an increase in the protestant students on campus attending the Catholic Mass and receiving ashes as well.

Rachel Muhr, the president of the Saint John Paul II Fellowship group at GU, explained the joy she feels when seeing the curiosity and respect that non-Catholics will practice when entering a Mass setting that they aren’t comfortable in or familiar with during an Ash Wednesday service.

“I’ve had a lot of people ask me about coming to Ash Wednesday Mass after never being to Mass before,” Muhr said. “Having that conversation (about) why a non-Catholic can receive ashes and not receive the Eucharist is something that comes up.”

Muhr discussed the several conversations she’s had with curious individuals about the significance of the act of the Eucharist within the Catholic tradition. Ashes are more than welcome to be participated in by all attendees of the Mass while only those who have gone through the Catholic sacraments are permitted to take part in Communion.

While the intrigue of the Mass is there, not everyone is curious enough to set foot in the church and sit in during an hour long service.

Anna MiLan Tran, one of the student minister’s for the Office of Mission and Ministry, explained how she feels like the reason so many individuals can be spotted with the black cross on their forehead is because of the fact that there is no obligation for people to attend a Mass to receive it.

One of the most public and populated spaces where ashes are distributed on campus is within the Hemmingson Center rotunda, a large circular area in the student center that everyone coming from the main part of campus must walk through to get into the building.

“(Hemmingson) is such a place where a majority of the Gonzaga community is when they’re not in their classes,” Tran said. “Everyone gathers here in their free time, so I feel like it attracts a lot more people. It’s a lot more convenient for some people to just get their ashes and go about their day rather than sitting through a Mass.”

The spiritual draw is something that both Randles and Muhr spoke on, and the duality of community and individual reflection that takes place during Ash Wednesday.

Randles mentioned how the phrase that is spoken with the swiping of the ash cross on people’s foreheads can bring to the surface a variety of contemplative emotions.

“Is it your immortality, is it the fact that it calls me out to (realize) that someday I’m going to die, even though I’m a young person,” Randles said. “It gives death a reality and kind of has a sting to it.”

Muhr described one of her favorite parts of Ash Wednesday being the silent acknowledgement of solidarity that it is able to foster among individuals who have the ash cross on their forehead. She described the various times she’d gone to a public place and seen someone else with the marking on their forehead and the smile or nod that took place between her and them.

The minor acknowledgement that they both had taken part in this act that defines the start of the Lenten season is enough to feel a part of something, Muhr said.

“I think there’s been an increasing desire on campus to experience what that’s like,” Muhr said. “Any good faith community is always going to want to draw people in, so part of that interfaith is that people are interested in seeing what it’s like to be a part of that community.”