Students, faculty and staff gathered on campus throughout Ash Wednesday to commemorate the first day of Lent, the 40 days of penance before Easter. 

Hundreds of participants prayed together and were given a small cross of ash on their foreheads. The tradition stems from the Bible verse in Genesis, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

A special mass took place at 7 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church on campus, at noon in the Paris-Yates Chapel and at 5:30 p.m. at St. John’s Episcopal Church.