The Polish Bishops' Conference, the central authority of the Catholic Church in Poland, said in a message that Ash Wednesday opens "a 40-day season of fasting, repentance and prayer."
It added that "Lent represents Christ’s time of temptation in the wilderness."
According to custom, priests sprinkle the heads of the faithful with ash in a ceremony designed to inspire repentance, telling them: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
The ashes traditionally used in Poland are those of twigs that were burned during the previous year's Palm Sunday.
Worshippers also abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday.
Lent, the 40-day period of fasting before Easter, is traditionally a time of self-denial and penitence for believers.
'Solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine'
In a special message this Ash Wednesday, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the head of the Polish Bishops' Conference, appealed for "solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine, two years after the Russian invasion."
He said: "Please organise a nationwide collection of money in all parishes in Poland, after every Mass on Ash Wednesday."
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Source: IAR, PAP, episkopat.pl
