Today Catholics around the country made their way to their nearest parish to mark Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a time for Christians to get back on track and re-focus on their life.

Archbishop Peter Loy Chong during his sermon at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Suva expressed that putting ashes on everyone’s forehead marks the symbol of repentance, sorrow, and turning back to God.

“For us, these are the symbols of reconciliation and contrition, all of us need this and that is why we are here because we all share one common human universal experience and that is brokenness.”

Liturgy Commission Chair for the Sacred Heart Cathedral Collin Yabaki says Ash Wednesday plays a very important part in the Catholic Church and is a time in the year they look forward to.

“For 40 days of fasting, almsgiving and that is the time you repent and turn away from your sins and believe in the Gospel and that is the time we look at ourselves and the sins we have committed.”

Archbishop Loy Chong says to repent is to change our attitude towards ourselves, our relationship with others, and our attitude towards God.