Bishop Gregory Kelly attends mass at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception for the first time since being installed on Feb. 24. (Raquel Villatoro/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

The Diocese of Tyler Bishop Gregory Kelly led his first mass at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in downtown Tyler on Ash Wednesday.

Multiple parishioners attended the noon mass at the cathedral to receive the ashes, including Tyler resident Ellen Salas, 31, who came with her family. Although Salas did not expect to see the bishop, it was a welcomed surprise.

“It’s exciting. We’ve been waiting for a new bishop for a long time, frankly, for a long time and so it was a nice surprise,” Salas said. “I didn’t know that he would be here today, but it felt very fitting to start Lent with the bishop and his … chair.”

Officially installed in February as bishop of the Tyler diocese, Kelly sat in the chair at the cathedral for the first time on Wednesday.

Kelly has been active in the community, working to learn more about Tyler since being installed as bishop. Earlier Wednesday morning, he visited with Bishop T.K. Gorman Catholic School students.

“I feel like I’m drinking from the fire hose, as they say,” Kelly said. “Really trying to understand the reality of the church in Tyler and what it is, how to lead and I think that’s something I have to learn … I’m going to try to understand, the reality of the church and see what that’s needed and what I can do.”

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of 40 days of “spiritual renewal and preparation in the Catholic church,” said Kelly. The 40 days are symbolic.

“At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, he went 40 days in the desert, to fast and prepare for the ministry that he was going to have. So it’s really a symbolic number spiritually and it culminates on Holy Thursday night, with the beginning of the mass of the Lord’s Supper,” Kelly said.

During baptisms, people receive the life of Christ. However, believers may drift away from the path and develop “a superficial living,” added Kelly.

“Lent is the time where we’re called to stop and (perform) basic practices of fasting or abstinence, prayer and works in mercy to allow the work to renew his life in us and deepen it, and then would call us closer to him and to live in the mission that he calls us to live in individually, but also corporately as the church,” Kelly said.

For Kelly, the significance of Ash Wednesday is the union of the Catholic church under Pope Francis.

“It really is a sign of our universal call and to behold it, to be close to Christ and also our universal need for, for repentance, for forgiveness,” Kelly said.

During mass, Kelly quoted “for you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” referring to life and death in the third chapter of the book of Genesis.

“But also giving hope that’s just not the end of the whole thing. That we’re dust … which has been touched by the hand of God and so formed into a human person, but they have an eternal destiny,” Kelly said. “So Lent is a time to say, how do we come back in touch with them again, to really understand the full depth of our own humanity, that we really are creatures.”

Adam and Eve ate the fruit instead of waiting. However, God wanted them to be patient. It is like a kid who opens presents before they are given them; then, it is no longer a gift, Kelly said.

“It just ruins everything. They’re not received as gifts anymore and it’s hard to go back and say, ‘well, let’s just start over again,” Kelly said. “So that’s kind of what they did; they tried to win and grab or could only be received as gift. And now the Lord’s trying to teach us, how do we receive his life as gift?”

For Salas, coming out to mass with her two young children is important to her. She believes Lent is an important time to remember why people are on Earth. It is a time of sacrifice, which makes Easter more of a celebration, Salas said.

“Whenever we are here it’s worth it,” Salas said. “There’s a lot of grace to be had and it’s a day to remember our mortality.”