Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. Ash Wednesday includes the practice of wearing ashes on the head, which symbolizes the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he speaks the words: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  The ashes also symbolize grief that we have sinned and caused division from God. Mass times on Ash Wednesday are at 6:45 am, 8 am, 9:15 am and 6:30 pm.