About dozen priests concelebrated, and numerous believers from the capital gathered at the Eucharistic celebration, including nuns and theology students of the Vrhbosna Theological Seminary, as well as several families of foreigners, employees of diplomatic missions.

At the beginning, the Archbishop in peace emphasized that Ash Wednesday is a special kind of celebration and underlined that at the beginning of the Holy Mass, the penitential act is omitted because it is performed after the sermon at the blessing of the ashes. Pointing out that "on Ash Wednesday, the holy season of Lent begins", he encouraged those present to "try to live a holy life not only today and during Lent, but all the days of the year".

Love ennobles

He later continued this thought in the mosaic homily, in which he first referred to the Holy Mass readings and underlined the three essential segments of Lent: prayer, penance-fasting and acts of mercy. Noting that he will not interpret the entire theology of Lent, he explained that during the period of 40 days it is necessary to "correct" the prayer and become aware of the conversation with God.

"Conversation includes both speaking and hearing. That is why it is extremely important to put prayer first in our personal and shared life (...) If we associate with God in prayer, then his love ennobles us. That is how we need to learn this love", said the Cardinal and underlined how to pray and think during the Stations of the Cross, a person becomes worthy of themselves because they understands that Jesus died for them.

"There are none of us on this Earth who do not bear wounds. A man heals his wounds in contemplation of the Stations of the Cross. He takes courage so that he can bear life," he said and encouraged those present to read at least one chapter of the Holy Scriptures every day with prayer and contemplation.

"We are used to only speaking to God, sometimes even commanding, but when we read the Bible we listen to what he says (...) I want to encourage the Word of God to be an integral part of prayer in this Lent, first personally, but it would be good as a family as well", he added and concluded that in Lent the emphasis is on fasting and renunciation.

"Penance is not about me suffering, but that I give up bad habits. Maybe some inclinations crept in on purpose and then a man commands himself in Lent and gives up something that will make him a better person", said Cardinal Puljić and remembered, when he was a parish priest, of a believer who cursed a lot. "I asked him to put a pebble in his pocket for every swear word during Lent. After a few days, he came and said that his pocket was full of pebbles, but, nevertheless, he cursed less because his pockets were heavy", added the Archbishop in peace and urged those present to "purify the tongue which knows how to inflict more pain than the sword". He wanted those present to stop cursing and bad language, not just give up certain food.

Building bridges of love

Towards the end of the sermon, he spoke about brotherly love and charity. He informed those present that it is not important "just to give something of yourself, but to give yourself". "That will be a very important charity giving in this Lent: knowing how to give yourself. Maybe you have someone who has made your life miserable, so you run away from them, to approach them kindly (...) We need to find the strength to build bridges of love. That is brotherly love, to forgive", the Cardinal said at the end and repeated that prayer, penance and acts of love are a wonderful challenge in order to live Lent intensively.

After the sermon, the Cardinal blessed the ashes, followed by a rite of cremation by sprinkling some ashes on the heads or foreheads of the faithful, created by burning the olive branches that were blessed last year on Palm Sunday, with a call to conversion expressed in the words from the Book of Genesis: "Remember, human, that you are dust and that you will turn to dust".

The liturgy was animated by the Mixed Cathedral Choir under the direction of rev. Marko Stanušić.