Parishioners at San Jose Catholic Church's Ash Wednesday service, and others across the country, had a change awaiting them when it came time for their priest to perform a traditional Lenten ritual. Instead of having ashes daubed in the sign of the cross on foreheads, the Rev. Remek Blaszkowski sprinkled it over their heads. In these days of the COVID-19 pandemic, all U.S. Catholic churches were told to go to a no-touch ritual at Ash Wednesday services that usher in the Lenten and Easter seasons. "I think it came as a form of surprise, but we live during the COVID times, so in a certain way we have been conditioned to new and different ways of conducting business and even liturgy," Blaszkowski said. "At the same time, it's a very meaningful sign as well to receive the ashes on the head, not just a mark on the forehead."