Busy believers made time to stop by the parking lot of Big Value Outlet on March 6 for an unconventional Ash Wednesday.
“Our concept of church is getting out and meeting people where they are,” the Rev. Scott Ciosek of St. Peter's, Dartmouth said.
This was the sixth year Ciosek and St. Peter’s have participated in Ashes to Go, and Ciosek thought it was the busiest Ash Wednesday yet. About 120 or 140 people received ashes during the first part of the event, which ran from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Ciosek said that the event is also an opportunity to meet people who do not regularly attend church, or who have stopped attending.
“A lot of people have come through today and they haven’t been to church in twenty, fifty years, and this sparks something,” Ciosek said, adding that St. Peter’s philosophy is about “accompanying one another on our spiritual journey.”
Those stopping by included the elderly, families with young children, and people who came across the event while out doing errands, and almost all expressed their gratitude for the opportunity as they didn’t have the time or ability to attend Mass.