Many area Christians will spend the next 40 days and nights of the Lenten season in self-reflection and prayer.

It isn’t as dark and dismal as it may sound, say local pastors. Rather, it is an opportunity for parishioners to dig deep inside themselves — soul searching, they call it — to get to that place where their heart is at peace with the world, putting others first comes easy and victory over temptation is possible.

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes — it is a reminder of human mortality and the call to live life completely and with purpose. A second chance, if you will.

“Lent is not a time to be depressed or to wallow in our failures,” said Rev. Jennifer Green with the United Methodist Church of Lyndonville. “It is a time to free our soul from the burdens that entangle us from a complete and whole relationship with God.”

Their practices may vary, but the idea is the same. For numerous Christian denominations, Lent is a time of personal repentance and preparation for Easter Sunday.

Ash Wednesday begins Lent following Tuesday’s Mardi Gras celebrations. Worship services and Masses were offered by churches throughout the county, many of whom distributed ashes in the shape of a cross on the forehead — the remains of palm leaves used during Palm Sunday last year.

Roman Catholics will give up a particular vice or temptation and abstain from meat on Fridays. Prayer and almsgiving is also emphasized, said Rev. Joseph Fifagrowicz, the priest at Sacred Heart in Medina and St. Joseph’s in Lyndonville.

“We encourage them to practice self- denial ... being of service to others,” said Fifagrowicz, who will be fasting from sweets, dessert and watching sports.

It includes small acts: avoiding gossip, letting people ahead of you in line or running errands for the homebound. When explaining it to his parishioners he tells them, “Great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.”

“Everyone still has a right to their good name, no matter who they are,” he said. “It’s really not very Christian to judge other people.”

The knowledge that yesterday’s 8 a.m. Mass at Sacred Heart may have been the last Ash Wednesday celebration there was not far from Fifagrowicz’s mind, he said. Seventy-one next month, he will be retiring soon, and his 200-family parish is expected to join forces with St. Mary’s in Medina and St. Stephen’s in Middleport before the end of the year. The church itself will be used as an oratory for weddings and funerals until its 100th anniversary in 2010. Fifagrowicz’s Lyndonville parish will link with the Roman Catholic church in Barker.

Across the county at the newly consolidated Holy Family Roman Catholic parish in Albion, approximately 900 people came through the doors Wednesday in search of a new beginning, said Rev. Richard Csizmar. Thirty of them appeared first thing in the morning to fit in a brief Communion service before work.

Sisters Joyce Monacelli and Mary Hicks, both of the Village of Albion, listened to the readings with open minds. They made plans to attend Ash Wednesday Mass together the night before at their sons’ basketball games, they said.

“I see it as a recommitment to your faith,” said Monacelli, a fifth-grade teacher in the Albion Central School District. “Reflecting on my spiritual life more.”

Hicks, a nurse at Lakeside Hospital in Brockport, agreed. She will be making a point to devote a few minutes each day to the Lenten booklet, “The Word Among Us,” for private reflection, she said.

For those like Margaret Joy, a lifelong parishioner at St. Joseph’s Church, Ash Wednesday is a continuation of her daily faith journey. She says her weekday 7:30 a.m. prayer group is “like eating popcorn” and that Lent is a culmination of her Christian beliefs — leading right to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“It’s not a holy day of obligation, but in the hearts of people it is one of the holiest days of the year,” Csizmar said. “It’s a great day for a priest because the people are so receptive.”

The Rev. Peter Lindemann with the Trinity Lutheran Church in Medina said devotional services will be held every Wednesday throughout Lent to help parishioners “clean out their lives.” During Holy Week, services will be held every day. “The more effort you put into it, the more joyful Easter will be,” he said.

Following the joint Ash Wednesday service between Lyndonville’s Presbyterian Church and United Methodist Church on Wednesday evening, parishioners will be engaging in Bible study throughout the season, Green said.

“Listen to what God is asking you to do on your Lenten journey,” Csizmar said. “Often we decide what we are going to do during Lent. We have our own agenda.”

Contact reporter Nicole Colemanat 798-1400, ext. 2227.