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Parishioners line up to receive ashes from priests at the front of Annunciation Catholic Church in Washington, DC, while others sit in wooden pews on Ash Wednesday.
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Christ as Ruler, with the Apostles and Evangelists (represented by the beasts). The female figures are believed to be either Santa Pudenziana and Santa Praxedes or symbols of the Jewish and Gentile churches. Mosaic in the apse of Santa Pudenziana, Rome,A
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Parishioners line up to receive ashes from priests at the front of Annunciation Catholic Church in Washington, DC, while others sit in wooden pews on Ash Wednesday.
Ash Wednesday Parishioners attending a service on Ash Wednesday.

Lent

Christianity
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Lent, in the Christian church, a 40-day period of penitential preparation for Easter. For many Christians, Lent is a season for fasting and abstinence in imitation of Jesus Christ’s fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. Almsgiving, the practice of giving money or food to the poor and performing other acts of charity, is also encouraged. In Western churches Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and...

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