Christian faithful mark Palm Sunday reuters.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reuters.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Feb. 16, 2021 Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY Ash Wednesday and Lent are a time to recall that new life emerges from the ashes and that spring blossoms from the bleakness of winter, said a noted Italian theologian. And when people fast from media overload, as Pope Francis has asked people to do for Lent, they should be directing their attention to the real people around them, Servite Father Ermes Ronchi told Vatican News Feb. 16. Instead of being glued to the internet, what if we were to look people in the eye the way we look at our phones, 50 times a day, looking at them with the same attentiveness and intensity, how many things would change? How many things would we discover? he asked.
A nun receives ashes on top of her head during Ash Wednesday Mass at the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Manila, Philippines, Feb. 26, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cebu Archdiocese in the central Philippines released a prayer guide Feb. 10 for the celebration of Ash Wednesday at home for those unable to go to church due to COVID-19 restrictions. (CNS photo/Eloisa Lopez, Reuters) Feb. 11, 2021 Catholic News Service MANILA, Philippines An archdiocese in the Philippines will allow churchgoers to distribute ashes among family members at home to mark the beginning of Lent Feb. 17. Ucanews.com reported the Cebu Archdiocese in the central Philippines released a prayer guide Feb. 10 for the celebration of Ash Wednesday at home for those unable to go to church due to COVID-19 restrictions. Children and elderly people are disqualified by government protocols to attend large gatherings such as those in churches.
Filipinos flock to churches for Simbang Gabi to pray for COVID-19 deliverance inquirer.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A queue at least 400m long had formed just outside the church s walls.
Over 2,000 worshippers eventually made it inside the church s cavernous hall and onto its sprawling grounds for the 4.30am mass.
Many more stood outside, behind its wrought-iron gates.
In normal times, the church could accommodate up to 10,000 devotees. But these are extraordinary times.
Across this predominantly Catholic archipelago, churches began holding pre-dawn masses - known here as the misa de gallo or mass of the rooster - in the run-up to Christmas.
The masses will be held for nine straight days from Wednesday (Dec 16), culminating with the midnight mass on Christmas Eve.