Lent is on the horizon, quizzarian friends. (Do you like how I make up new nicknames for you every week?) And we’ve included two Ash Wednesday questions for you in advance of Feb. 17.

1. Lent

Following Scripture and Jewish tradition (“On the twenty-fourth day of this month, the Israelites gathered together fasting and in sackcloth, their heads covered with dust.” – Nehemiah 9:1) on Ash Wednesday, U.S. Catholics receive ashes rubbed on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. In some other parts of the world, another customary way of receiving ashes is what?

a) rubbing on the throat

b) sprinkling on the head

c) marking on the hands

d) putting across the knees

2. Clergy

What canonical positions are the only ones kept active in a diocese when it is between bishops?

a) chancellor and vicars forane

b) just the vicar general

c) the vicars forane

d) judicial vicar and chancellor

3. Popes

What name has been used by the most popes?

a) John

b) Innocent

c) Paul

d) Pius

4. Catholic Hawaii

The Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in Honolulu recently underwent a renovation that included a new baptismal font. The font is what geometric shape? Hint: It is the preferred shape for baptismal pools because the number of sides symbolizes a new creation.

a) circle

b) cross

c) octagon

d) rectangle

5. Lent

Ash Wednesday is a day of what?

a) Fast and abstinence

b) Fast only

c) Abstinence only

d) Neither fast, nor abstinence

6. Saints

Who was the first Pacific island saint?

a) St. Damien De Veuster

b) St. Peter Chanel

c) St. Paul Miki

d) St. Lorenzo Ruiz

Answers: 1) b, 2) d, 3) a, 4) c, 5) a, 6) b