A record number of people attended an annual Ash Wednesday Mass in Whalley Chapel.

“This year was the largest documented attendance on record with 220 attendees,” said Catholic Campus Ministry director LaDonna McCrary.

“(It was left) with standing room only.”

McCrary said the Mass was open to the whole Pitt-Johnstown community.

The Rev. George Gulash led attendees to sing during the Mass, singing Psalms 51 with an accompanying quartet of musicians.

“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned,” they sang.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a season of fasting and abstinence that is Lent.

Gulash said it’s a day of sacrifice.

“We sacrifice of ourselves so that others can have,” he said.

Before the ashes were distributed, Gulash asked the attendees to stand for a gospel acclamation from Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18.

“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites,” he read.

The distribution of ashes took place after a Gulash homily.

Gulash sprinkled holy water with his fingers into four dishes of ashes. Then, he put cross-shaped ashes on the foreheads of the alter server and three people designated to distribute the ashes.

Gulash and the three ministers then marked the congregants’ foreheads with an ashen cross.

McCrary said the ashes are an outward sign of people’s sinfulness and a need for penance.

“The ashes also symbolize our mortality as a reminder that one day we will die and our bodies will return to dust,” she said.