Monsignor Patrick Farrell dusts ashes on the forehead of Peyton Smith, 9, this morning at St. Paul Catholic Church as an Ash Wednesday ritual of the first day of Lent, a period of repentance before the celebration of Easter, this year on April 8. St. Paul is one of many churches across the city where Ash Wednesday was being observed. Assisting Farrell in the distribution of ashes, in the background, is Eucharistic minister and parishioner Angela Canizaro. Peyton, a fourth-grader at St. Francis Xavier Elementary, is the son of Scott and Angela Smith.