January 19, 2021 // National

For Ash Wednesday, Vatican asks priests to ‘sprinkle’ ashes on heads

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments asked priests to take special anti-COVID-19 precautions this year when distributing ashes on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17, including sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads rather than using them to make a cross on people’s foreheads.

The congregation’s note on the “distribution of ashes in time of pandemic” was published on the congregation’s website Jan. 12 and directs priests to say “the prayer for blessing the ashes” and then sprinkle “the ashes with holy water, without saying anything.”

“Then he addresses all those present and only once says the formula as it appears in the Roman Missal, applying it to all in general: ‘Repent and believe in the Gospel’ or ‘Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.’

“The priest then cleanses his hands, puts on a face mask and distributes the ashes to those who come to him or, if appropriate, he goes to those who are standing in their places,” it said. “The priest takes the ashes and sprinkles them on the head of each one without saying anything.”

The usual practice would be to repeat the formula — “Repent and believe in the Gospel” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” — to each person as the ashes are sprinkled on the top of their head or rubbed onto their forehead.

Sprinkling ashes on the top of people’s heads, rather than marking foreheads with ashes, is the customary practice at the Vatican, in Italy and across Europe. Given the spread of the novel coronavirus, the practice has the advantage of not requiring the priest to touch multiple people.

In the United States, the approach normally employed is a bare hand used to mark foreheads with the sign of the cross. 

However the ashes are received, the interior repentance expressed by this exterior act is at the heart of the action.

Sprinkling ashes on the top of the head recalls the biblical practice of putting on “sackcloth and ashes” as an act of penance, reminded Brian MacMichael, director of the Office of Worship.

“For example, we read in the Book of Nehemiah: ‘On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites gathered together while fasting and wearing sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.’” (Neh 9:1)

All receiving ashes in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend should keep their masks on while doing so, and social distancing should be maintained in the lines.