Why does Bishop Zubik give generous ash crosses?

Celebrating Lent with joy and hope

By Ann Rodgers

As a child, Bishop David Zubik was disappointed by the gray smudge with which some priests marked his forehead on Ash Wednesday.

“You could barely see it was a cross and it would be gone in five minutes,” he recalled.

From that was born his distinctive Ash Wednesday cross, which looks as if it was applied with a jumbo black permanent marker. His ash recipe is mixed for maximum impact, so the cross remains starkly visible throughout the first day of Lent as a sign of gratitude for God’s love and mercy.

“One of the things that the devil would not want us to do is to show the cross,” he said. “The cross is not a meaningless piece of jewelry. It is a symbol of God’s love for us.” 

When people wear it in public, the cross of ashes sparks conversations about Jesus with co-workers and even total strangers – reminding those who wear it to behave in a Christlike way.

“Whether it’s turning gossip into words of charity or turning away from selfishness to be more selfless in terms of what we do for each other,” Bishop Zubik said. 

Ash Wednesday 2025 falls on March 5. Lent ends at sundown on Holy Thursday, which is April 17. 

The six-week season helps Christians focus intensively on their ultimate goal of reaching heaven. Inspired by Jesus’ prayer, fasting and resistance to temptation in the desert (Luke 4:1-13), Lent provides opportunities for believers to purify, prepare and renew their hearts before the great Holy Week commemorations of His sacrificial death and Resurrection

Catholics “should see this as a time of joy and a time of hope,” said Bishop Zubik said.

The sacred ashes are made by burning blessed palms left from Palm Sunday and crushing them with holy oil or holy water. They are a sign that God created all people from dust and gave them a mission to fulfill before their bodies return to dust. While Ash Wednesday is not a holy day of obligation – everyone can receive ashes without attending Mass – Catholics are encouraged to receive the Eucharist if possible.

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, however, are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence. Also, all Fridays in Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.

Abstinence means that no one over the age of 13 may eat meat from land-dwelling animals or birds – but fish is allowed. Fasting, required of healthy Catholics ages 18-59, means that they can have one full meal and two smaller ones that, together, do not equal one full meal. If possible, the Good Friday fast should be continued until the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night, to honor Christ’s suffering and death and prepare to fully experience the joy of His Resurrection.

Bishop Zubik encourages everyone to understand the Ash Wednesday scriptures about Jesus’ trust in God as a “three-point plan” to grow in faith through prayer, fasting and good works.

First, he said, pray in the knowledge that “every prayer that we utter is a personal encounter with God.”

Second, people’s choices for fasting should go beyond renouncing a favorite pleasure and focus on opening their hearts wider to God. Bishop Zubik, a self-proclaimed “newsaholic,” gives up watching news four days a week so he can pray more.

“The space that’s created, the quiet that’s there when I’m not watching the news, really helps me to see how much God is a part of my life,” he said. “We need to look for practices that will help us realize how deep God’s love is.” 

Third, good works begin with reflecting on Jesus’ mercy and “the ways in which He invited people who had fallen off the rails to become close to Him,” Bishop Zubik said. Serving people in need is an opportunity to participate in God’s love and mercy and “for us to join our hearts and our hands to help each other get to heaven.”

Catholics in the United States often combine fasting with good works through CRS Rice Bowl (www.crsricebowl.org), donating the cost of the meals they give up to Catholic Relief Services. A quarter of the donations stays in the diocese to help hungry people locally, while the rest helps the poorest of the poor and victims of war and disaster worldwide.

The Lenten experience will be magnified during Jubilee 2025, the holy year in which Pope Francis has called Christians to be “Pilgrims of Hope.” 

The news, social media and conversations “can lead people to believe we are in a time of hopelessness,” Bishop Zubik said. During Holy Year 2025, “we need to be more hopeful, and we need to speak deliberately about hope.”

By reminding everyone that they will return to dust, Ash Wednesday proclaims that today’s earthly reality “isn’t all there is to life,” Bishop Zubik said.

“We’re called to be citizens of God’s kingdom in heaven. What we experience here is temporary.” 

For Lenten resources to help you deepen your faith, visit: diopitt.org/lent.