With the sun going down and the wind picking up, the temperature at the 45th Street light rail station dropped to more normal February levels. But The Rev. Rose Cohen Hassan of Trinity Church did not shiver or shirk from the duty she had come to perform, waiting for the next train of commuters to arrive.
“I wore layers,” she said, turning up the sleeve of her white religious garb to show the arm of the sweater she wore.
She and Andrew Balik, an assistant, had come here as members of Trinity Church to administer ashes to those commuters who wished to partake.
“If they can’t come to the church, we’ll bring the church to them,” Rev. Hassan said. “We can’t just stay in the church building, so we’re bringing the gospel to the people.”
This year, Ash Wednesday came on Feb. 22.
The Rev. Hassan has been an Episcopal priest since 1993, received a master’s degree in Sacred Theology in Spiritual Direction in 1997, and is now a certified life coach.
Before coming to Bayonne, she had been the vicar of Trinity Episcopal Church in Kearny since 1995. While there, she began a ministry to the Spanish-speaking community in Kearny, and began Tri-County Ministries.
During the morning rush, Rev. Gregory Gerard Perez administered ashes at the Eighth Street Station where more 80 people partook during the first hour.
What is Ash Wednesday?
Ash Wednesday is the traditional beginning of Lent for people of the Christian faith, a period of time for reflection and repentance, similar to Yom Kippur in the Jewish faith, Rev. Hassan said. Ash Wednesday in Western Christianity is 46 days before Easter, and begins a 40-day period of prayer and fasting, a reflection of the 40 days Jesus Christ spent fasting in the desert prior to beginning his ministry.
On Ash Wednesday, religious leaders place ashes on the foreheads of parishioners as a sign of mourning and repentance. The ashes come from the burned palms from the previous Palm Sunday – which are given the Sunday before Easter, and begin Holy Week.
Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent’s way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults.
Often, the ashes are administered with quotes from The Bible. Most often it is “Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.”
“The ashes are symbolic of what people in the Old Testament did with sack cloth and ashes as a way of repenting,” Rev. Hassan said.
Also, she said, the word Adam (the Biblical first man) in some translations means clay or dust or ashes, and this ceremony reminds people that they were created by God.
The ashes from burned palms become a symbol of death and rebirth. They are displayed in churches on Palm Sunday, a week before Easter – the day which celebrates the rebirth of Christ after his crucifixion.
“The ashes are symbolic of what people in the Old Testament did as a way of repenting.” – Rev. Rose Cohen Hassan
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Going into the community
Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and some Baptist churches give ashes but usually at a religious service. But recently churches have started going out into the community, partly because many people are too busy in their workdays to get to church in time to collect ashes at the morning or evening services.
At the train stations, not everybody wanted ashes, and some already had them, baring their foreheads as proof as they climbed the stairs from the platform to the street.
Balik, who is on the board at Trinity Parish, assisted Rev. Hassan in applying ashes.
Jane Wiadzionek received ashes on the platform, as did about a dozen more people early into the vigil.
Trinity Church operates a number of programs to the public including the H.I.G.H.W.A.Y.S. program, food pantry and other services incorporated as the Windmill Alliance in 1985.