{"id":137896,"date":"2026-02-18T21:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137896\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:05:08","slug":"staten-island-students-kick-off-lenten-season-with-ash-wednesday-services-45-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137896\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island students kick off Lenten season with Ash Wednesday services (45+ photos)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"articleLabel__link\" class=\"articleLabel__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.silive.com\/news\/\" title=\"Navigate to News\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a>Updated: Feb. 18, 2026, 4:02 p.m.|Published: Feb. 18, 2026, 3:42 p.m.<img fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\" alt=\"Ash Wednesday at the Academy of St. Dorothy\" class=\"hero-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/777PX6VCAJFBPDVSMH5DJFOZMU.jpg\"  \/>Academy of St. Dorothy Principal Sister Sharon A. McCarthy presents crosses to the younger students at an Ash Wednesday service in the Grasmere school&#8217;s auditorium on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026.  (Advance\/SILive.com | Jason Paderon)<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"QTH5Z24TSZESNMQB2VW66G6MG4\">STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014\u00a0The Christian season of Lent is officially upon us and some 175 students at the Academy of St. Dorothy kicked off the 40 days of solemnity and sacrifice Wednesday afternoon with Ash Wednesday services in front of an audience of parents and guests including Catholic Schools of Staten Island Superintendent Jann Amato. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"DFVZKI3WANA7VFUDFDQW2P6OCU\">\u201cDuring this season\u00a0of renewal and penance,\u00a0it\u00a0is truly inspiring to see our\u00a0students come\u00a0together\u00a0and\u00a0share a\u00a0meaningful\u00a0moment\u00a0centered on the\u00a0message\u00a0and purpose of\u00a0Lent,\u201d\u00a0said Sister Sharon\u00a0McCarthy, the principal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"YCH5BJSLLJEHXF47RS2LYCDKKI\">The service included musical accompaniment from David Dragos and the students. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"XOZTQCELVFFHNISIWBJEGOAWCA\">Check out photos from the ceremony below.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-gallery-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ZOVADPZHH5E2BKO4KBXKTGU5NM.jpg\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image-gallery-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CIIBPSUW3VDDNL37SZKZF6B4YE.jpg\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>1\/48<\/p>\n<p class=\"image-gallery-caption\">The Academy of St. Dorothy celebrates Ash Wednesday<\/p>\n<p>After freelancing for over a decade, Jason Paderon came on full-time in September 2021 as a Multimedia Specialist. His duties include photography, videography and podcast producing among others. He is also a&#8230; more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NewsUpdated: Feb. 18, 2026, 4:02 p.m.|Published: Feb. 18, 2026, 3:42 p.m.Academy of St. Dorothy Principal Sister Sharon A.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-137896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}