COUNTYWIDE : Young, Old Mark Lent’s Beginning

Twenty minutes after Mass began, several schoolchildren rushed into St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana carrying their schoolbooks.

Quickly and quietly they found a seat in the back pews, joining the 800 others--mothers with babies in their arms, old men in wide hats, teen-agers in Nike jackets, couples of all ages--who had crowded into the church for the 2:30 p.m. service.

It was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and thousands of Christians throughout Orange County were crowding into churches to repent sins and receive blessings.

Before the day was over, more than 10,000 were expected at 15 services at St. Ann’s, seven or eight of which were expected to be held simultaneously in the church’s auditorium and schools to accommodate the crowds getting off from work.

At the 2:30 p.m. Mass, Father Joseph Justice called Ash Wednesday “a very ancient liturgy” that marks the beginning of Lent, a “sacred season of fasting and prayer.” Lent lasts for 40 days and ends on Easter Sunday. Many fast, give up entertainment or do service for the poor during the time.

“It is a public penance we as Catholics do today . . . asking the Lord’s mercy and doing penance for our sins,” Justice said.

Justice told worshipers that there were different reasons people celebrated Ash Wednesday. Some only come on this day for a special blessing, he said. Some come because they grew up doing it, or because of superstition.

“In reality it is a call for conversion, humility and reconciliation with others, and that if we miss that, we miss the reason for today.”

The church is 80% Latino, Justice said. Because many Latinos are Catholic, Ash Wednesday is also a “remnant of identity with the church and the culture,” he said after the service.

Later he reflected on the social aspects of the religious celebration.

“It’s a wonderful day . . . a family day. Everybody comes. It’s a kind of reunion day, teaching both religiously and culturally.”

For Daniel Garcia, Ash Wednesday was a time to see his parents, Rosario and Pedro Garcia, 47 and 51 respectively, who came from El Paso, Tex., to visit him and his brother and to attend Ash Wednesday services together.

“We’re very religious,” Garcia, 20, said. “We hardly see each other. It’s pretty hard now. It’s like a love to God (for them) to have Ash day with us in California.”

When services were over people swarmed into the center aisle to wait in line for the sign of the cross to be made in ash on their foreheads.

Tony Correa, 60, of Santa Ana, chose to wait out the crowd.

“I’m sitting because I have a bad back,” he said.

Because he is also a diabetic, he said, he won’t be fasting.

“It is required that I eat four or five times a day,” he said. But, Correa added, “I won’t be eating meat on Ash Wednesday or Fridays until (Lent) is over.”

Justice said abstaining from certain foods, giving up time and money to the poor is designed to continue throughout the year.

“The idea is that it will stick. Hopefully it begins to change our lives.”