As sunlight broke through an upper window of the chapel at Grace Christian Counseling Center, a small group of adults and youth gathered to receive ashes and observe Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the 40-day season of Lent, a time Christians worldwide prepare for the resurrection of Christ.

The youth came from Church of the Holy Trinity and Crawford Street United Methodist Church, said Holy Trinity’s Rev. Beth Palmer, who administered ashes during the service. The churches partner share a youth group.

“This is our third year of doing it before school,” said the Rev. Beth Palmer, pastor of the Church of the Holy Trinity. “It’s an opportunity to introduce the youth to Ash Wednesday and the preparation during the season of Lent. It’s an ancient tradition for Catholics and Episcopalians, but not widely practiced by other faiths.”

Ben Northcutt, youth minister for Crawford Street United Methodist Church, introduced the program when he came to the church.

“Before I came to do youth ministry at Crawford Street, I was pastor of a couple of churches in Kentucky and it had been a tradition for many years to do an early morning Ash Wednesday service,” he said. “The first year we were here, we suggested we get together with (Holy) Trinity Episcopal Church and First Presbyterian Church for our teenagers and their parents do an early morning Ash Wednesday Service.”

During the service, Palmer discussed the relationship between the 40 days of Lent and the use of the number 40 in the Bible, and recalled Biblical accounts of traditional penance of wearing sackcloth and ashes.

“That was a way of demonstrating to God repentance and getting back to God,” she said.

Northcutt called the observance of Lent “an expression of the gospel in our lives. Our experience of the gospel always begins with the recognition of our own needs.”

He asked the service participants to “each day, take a moment to focus on Jesus and everything he means to us.”