Ash Wednesday saw hundreds of the faithful gather at St Mary’s Cathedral to contemplate their faith and personal devotion at the beginning of Lent for 2025.
They were among the many thousands who filled churches across the archdiocese for the sacred ritual that prompts people to recommit to their faith, or learn more about it, in anticipation of Easter.
Sarah Rasam, a university student from Western Sydney, travelled to the cathedral for Mass, telling The Catholic Weekly making the effort to attend was important to her because it “reminds you where you came from.”
There was a wide variety of people at the Mass, celebrated by cathedral dean Fr Don Richardson, representative of the diverse makeup of the archdiocese.
Some attendees weren’t Sydney locals, coming to Mass to mark the beginning of Lent even while on holiday. Among them was Kristina who says attending is a way to “give back.”
“It gives me the opportunity to give back to my faith and to God and look at myself and what I can do better. I’ve pledged to do the rosary every day and I’ve given up chocolate,” she told The Catholic Weekly.
Rasam said she has committed to giving up meat throughout Lent as a penance this year, as a means of self-denial and also in honour of those who, amid a growing cost-of-living crisis, cannot afford to purchase it for themselves.