Lent begins.
The first of 40 days of sacrifice and reflection preceding the holiest day of the Christian calendar, came today, even in the middle of a thrumming Denver International Airport.
Harried travelers, busy ticket agents and baggage handlers ducked into the small Interfaith Chapel at the end of a long row of fast-food stands in Terminal East.
With Ash Wednesday, preparation for Easter, was under way.
Many had to stand and some even peered through the glass walls of the overflowing chapel. They came to hear the Gospel and to wait for a daub of black ashes on their foreheads from a Catholic deacon.
Some came late. Some left early, glancing at watches and grabbing luggage to head for their gate.
“We kid that we have crowds at Easter and Christmas, but Ash Wednesday is just as compelling for people,” Deacon Jack Sutton said. “We always have this kind of crowd.”
Sutton has done the Ash Wednesday service at DIA for 10 years, except no service was held here last year. He doesn’t remember the reason. This year short services were offered at noon, which drew a stream of at least 50 people, and again at 2:30 p.m.
Two priests heard confessions in even tinier side rooms of the chapel.
“I like Easter and want to get ready for it. It’s the most important holiday, Jesus’ Resurrection,” said 40-year-old Tiffiany Johnson, headed back home to Mandaree, N.D. First she would attend the 2:30 p.m. service.
“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned,” Denver Archdiocese staff member Tony Schoenberger read at services. “Create in me a clean heart.”
In the background, the airport address system continued booming messages about gate changes and paging passengers.
Hundreds of people continued snaking through the maze of aisles forming airport security — visible below the chapel balcony.
“Today we begin our annual journey into Lent,” Sutton said. “The cross of ashes traced on our foreheads is an outward sign that we are to trace that cross inwardly, on our hearts.”
This day the faithful reflect on how they might change and if they can change, he said, for there is always hope for transformation.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
