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Ash Wednesday calls fire-scarred faithful to walk path of sorrow, renewal
The faithful trudged up the hill to Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center on the first Ash Wednesday after the Eaton Fire, clutching umbrellas along with their hopes that this season of Lent could lead, from ashes to ashes and on to an Easter of new beginnings.
The Sierra Madre center was one of many houses of faith that marked the beginning of Lent, the 40 days Christians observe with prayer and penance before Easter. In the still-scarred landscapes of the Eaton and Palisades fires, believers said this first Ash Wednesday brought with it a stark visual of that fire that destroys but also cleanses.
“We, the Mater Dolorosa retreat center community, along with all affected, find ourselves walking a path of sorrow and renewal,” said Rev. Febin Barose, director of the 101-year-old center.
The Eaton Fire decimated more than 14,021 acres in Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre after it broke out on Jan. 7, killing 17. More than 9,000 structures were destroyed. In the Palisades, the 23,707 acres destroyed included almost 7,000 structures reduced to rubble. In both wildfires, houses of worship fell to ash.
But much of the conversation Wednesday focused as much on renewal as on ruin.
“The recent fire has left visible scars on our beloved grounds,” said Barose, “yet it’s also ignited a deeper awareness of Christ’s journey to Calvary.”
A slice of heaven, even in the rain
On the Sierra Madre campus, Karla Burden of Monrovia held an umbrella over visitors as she escorted them from their cars to the chapel. A longtime volunteer, she said the center is a little slice of heaven for her.
“Even in the rain, I love it here,” Burden said. “This Lent, I think we have to go through some tragedy in order to regrow.”
Mater Dolorosa’s hermitage, garage, and staff apartment burned down. In the center’s famed outdoor areas, the Seven Sorrows Garden, St. Paul of the Cross fountain, and Stations of the Cross were damaged. A building roof and two floors of the center’s main building also needed repairs. Insurance won’t cover everything, so the religious order that runs the center is fundraising.
This recovery phase is called “a journey of hope under the shadow of the Cross,” Barose said.
The center’s name, after all, calls to Mary, Mater Dolorosa, or Mother of Sorrows, standing at the foot of the Cross. But we know sorrow is never the end of the story, Barose added.
“The Resurrection is coming. Mater Dolorosa will shine again with faith and support as a place of grace, peace, and renewal,” he said. “May this Lent draw us closer to Christ, whose love conquers all suffering and leads us to new life.”
More than 2,500 people attend Good Friday devotions at Mater Dolorosa before Easter, and volunteer Pat Wickhem, 78, of Sierra Madre will be ready to lead the prayers. He has been attending retreats at Mater Dolorosa with his father since he was a young man.
“God spared this place and to see the joy and of everyone here today, I just feel so blessed,” he said.
Jose Diaz, 72, of East Los Angeles, brought his wife and grandson to the place he said has given him so much.
“Lent is a special time for us Catholics to deepen our faith in our traditions and remember, out of the ashes comes new life and we can be renewed,” Diaz said. “I love to talk but to come here for the men’s silent retreats, I leave with hope in my heart.”
Paulina Baeza of Fillmore brought four of her seven children to the center because she wanted them to see where she found much comfort at retreats.
“Mater Dolorosa saved my life,” Baeza said. “And coming here, in the rain, I prayed my children would know how to love Jesus and follow Him and find the healing and comfort I found.”
In Altadena, a hero returns to his church
At fire-damaged Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Altadena, Deacon José Luis Díaz, 68, was hailed as a hero in the days after the fire. Already safe at the evacuation center at the Pasadena Convention Center, Díaz was asleep when his wife woke him to report the church was on fire.
Díaz, his son-in-law and two other parishioners arrived to see flames licking at a wooden roof near the church’s boiler room. They broke burning shingles off the roof and hosed it down until the flames were out. Within minutes of their arrival, eight homes in front of and across the church broke out in flames, explosions punctuating the danger.
In the church parking lot, Diaz said plants in flames made it seem like fire was on the ground. Mini-tornados whished at his feet.
“I raised my arms and said, ‘What now, God?’ and the wind moved away,” Diaz said. “People tell me I am a hero or an angel but I don’t feel like that. I am just doing the things God told me.”
Ordained a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2015, Diaz and his wife Maria Esther, have lived in Altadena since 1989, raising their four children there. Still living in hotels two months after the fire, the Diazes hope to return to their home this week.
A retired machinist who finds comfort in reading the Psalms, Diaz said the church, still showing burns from the fire, draws a full house at the 9 a.m. Mass every Sunday.
While the parish hall, rectory and convent were being cleaned, the congregation found a temporary home at St. Andrew Church in Pasadena. The Altadena church reopened on Feb. 2.
“People, even when they have to come from where they live now, they are here,” he said, “and we are staying here always.”
In a Santa Monica church, loving their neighbors as themselves
The plights of victims of the nearby Palisades fire continue to dwell in the minds of congregants at St. Monica’s Catholic Church.
More than 100 early risers began their day on Wednesday with a 6:30 a.m. service at the Santa Monica church that has long hosted members from nearby Pacific Palisades.
“It’s Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent,” declared Silvia Sanchez of Santa Monica. “We just pray for people to get better and get back on their feet.”
“It’s really hard,” she said. “It’s really hard for our community.”
Back in January, St. Monica’s parishioners welcomed their peers from Corpus Christi Church. The 60-year-old church was destroyed by the wind-propelled firestorm that tore through the community.
“When you get the ashes placed on your forehead, they say, ‘Remember, from dust you came, and to dust you’ll return,’” said Sean Delehunt of Los Angeles, “so I just think about the kind of fleeting nature of life and it’s a reminder.”
“I’m in my 40s, so I don’t really think about death, (but) one day I’ll be gone, I’ll be dead, I’ll be ash or nothing, so it’s just kind of a reminder of the present moment,” he said.
It was a relatively short ceremony led by Rev. Vince Kuna. While he didn’t touch on the Palisades fire, he advised parishioners that it was appropriate to proudly wear the mark of the ash in order to show off their faith on this particular day.
“Some say it’s okay to be a little bit public now and then, and to blow that trumpet … Yes, I want to be counted in that when the saints go marching in,” he said.
Hillary McCarthy of Santa Monica noted the metaphoric connection of the fire as it relates to ash and loss of earthly possessions.
“I guess part of the ash is kind of reminding us that life is short and you can’t take it with you,” she said.
“To ashes we shall return, so with the fires, thankfully most of the people are safe, but all the possession didn’t make it,” McCarthy said. “So it’s like, Okay, even though that’s really tough, that’s not the most important thing.”
Moved by the examples she has seen set by victims of the fire that she knows, Marisa Christina Ramos of Santa Monica said the resiliency and sense of perspective they’ve exhibited is remarkable.
“I’ve seen nothing but hope from the people that have had to leave their church,” she said of people she knows from the Palisades, including parishioners from Corpus Christi Church, which was lost in the fire. “They’ve had to leave their church and come here.”
“It’s been amazing,” Ramos said. “I’ve heard people speak whose houses are ashes now and they talk like nothing even happened to them. It’s really inspiring, because we’re so caught up in our materialistic things.”
“The Lord,” she added, “works in mysterious ways.”
ANAHEIM — It might not have been a work of art, but two vital points went into the standings rather than any museum, as the Ducks defeated the Nashville Predators, 2-1, on Friday night at Honda Center.
They moved to within six points of a wild-card playoff berth with the victory, while the Predators, now playing primarily for pride, were unable to extend their four-game winning streak.
Alex Killorn and Troy Terry scored for the Ducks. Lukáš Dostál held the hosts in a battle that saw them out-shot nearly two to one, with that proportion being even more lopsided at points in the third period, by halting 28 pucks.
Jakub Vrana scored Nashville’s only goal, and Juuse Saros had 13 saves.
“It’s a huge win because the boys really pulled together,” Dostál said. “Nashville had a push there. They’re an experienced team. They have veteran guys, but I think we held our ground. It’s important for the win and for the growth [of the team].”
A stalemate persisted for much of the evening, with transparent turning points late in the second period and in the middle of the third.
With 8:40 to play, Killorn’s 15th goal of the season came after Trevor Zegras threw an area pass into the slot, where Killorn criss-crossed with Drew Helleson, swooping on the puck and skating across the crease for the game-deciding goal, and a bit of redemption.
Leo Carlsson added a secondary assist on the goal, bringing his and Zegras’ scoring streaks to four games apiece.
“I thought Leo and Z got better in the third period, and they got rewarded with (Killorn’s) goal there,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said.
The Ducks had been in a tie game after Killorn’s interference penalty gave Nashville a power play. Early on, Dostál made a resplendent save, once again managing to reach out and knock down a puck that was labeled to one post as he slid toward the other.
“I can’t not mention Dostál, he was unbelievable,” Terry said.
On that same power play, however, Nashville regrouped to knot up the contest at the 4:25 mark behind Vrana’s hard one-timer from inside the blue line, which hit Dostál but squibbled through him.
The Ducks spent another 2:50 shorthanded, including 1:10 with a two-man disadvantage, escaping unscathed and propelling them to Killorn’s late, tie-breaking goal.
“The five-on-three that we had to kill was either going to make or break us,” Cronin said. “It was a trigger to get us to play a little bit more on our toes. There was more energy on the bench and in the building after that.”
For almost 36 minutes of the match, there was no score and few events to speak of, but a short spurt late in the middle frame enlivened the action and left the Ducks up 1-0 at the second intermission.
Terry had been dangerous for much of the night, weaving to the net for chances of his own and creating for others, before he scored at the 15:52 mark of the second period. A minute later, all hell broke loose in the Ducks’ crease as they scrambled frantically to prevent a tying goal.
Mason McTavish and Terry applied forecheck pressure, with Vatrano recovering the puck and sliding it across to Terry at the left faceoff dot, where he launched a missile that found its target under the bar to the far side. It was Terry’s 18th goal of the season and second since Jan. 29, but it reminded the world how he was able to score 37 times in 2021-22.
“It felt good. I haven’t been short on chances,” Terry said. “When Frank got it, I knew their (defenseman) had broken his stick, so I just tried to get over to that weak side. I knew (Ryan Strome) was going to the back post, and once I saw the D slide, I tried to get it off before (the shot was blocked).”
The Predators nearly clawed that goal right back, but Jackson LaCombe was on his toes and Radko Gudas was on his back, his belly and whatever else had to touch the ice to keep the puck from reaching Dostál, who also made a save during the sequence and then nearly slid the puck into his own net.
“It was a lot of fuss, but I think the guys blocked every single one of them, so they helped me out pretty much there,” Dostál said.
Twenty minutes came and went without a goal, with the Ducks failing to capitalize on a pair of power-play opportunities. LaCombe showed off his skating on a breakout that saw him elude three Predators by himself, as well as his deception when he looked off a penalty killer to set up a one-timer for McTavish in the right circle. Dostál helped keep the period scoreles with a cat-like glove save on Michael Bunting.
“It was a strange game. There was not a lot of energy. There wasn’t a lot of ice. It was kind of a tight-checking game,” Cronin said. “They were throwing pucks out and we were trying to gap up, and it seemed to be a little of a tennis match in the first period. There was just no rhythm to it.”
The Ducks will take to the skies for a three-game journey that will open against Cam Fowler and the St. Louis Blues, before heading to Dallas and concluding against these same Predators.
DENVER — The nature of the NBA’s 82-game regular season naturally creates situations like the one the Lakers faced on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets.
On the road, down four of five starters. Without six of their top-eight rotation players. All during a stretch of six games in eight days, including three back-to-back sets, with Friday capping the first one.
When the Lakers’ injury report was released on Friday, which revealed that Luka Doncic, Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent would join the list of the team’s unavailable players, the matchup against the Nuggets could have been viewed as a schedule loss.
The Lakers didn’t treat it that way.
Austin Reaves, Dalton Knecht and their teammates nearly pulled off an improbable victory at Ball Arena before falling to the Nuggets, 131-126, after Jamal Murray’s tiebreaking 3-pointer with 5.6 seconds left and Russell Westbrook’s exclamation point dunk that sealed the win for Denver (43-24).
“I’m proud of the group for their level of fight and resiliency,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “There’s a lot we could have done better. But the group competed and we gave ourselves a chance to win.”
Reaves (37 points, 13 assists, eight rebounds) and Knecht (32 points) led the short-handed Lakers (40-25), with both players making clutch plays down the stretch that kept the team in the game before eventually suffering their fourth straight loss to close an 0-4 trip.
“You always want to win,” Reaves said. “And regardless of who you take the floor with, we feel like we could win, and we went and put ourselves in a good position to do that. Losing sucks, but I’m happy with what these guys in the locker room did.”
With the Lakers trailing 124-123, Reaves stripped reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic for his third steal of the game and converted a layup on the other end to put the Lakers ahead by one with just over a minute left after they had trailed by 13 in the third.
Knecht helped add to that lead after a Murray turnover led to the rookie dunking in transition to put the visitors up by three – with Knecht cramping up on takeoff and taking a hard fall on his head/shoulders but staying in the game with the Lakers up 126-123 with 52 seconds left.
With little time to go over defensive plans during a timeout as Redick checked on Knecht after his fall, Jokic (28 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals) converted an and-1 floater over Christian Koloko, making the free throw to tie the score at 126 apiece with 48 seconds left.
“The play that Jokic got the and-one, I’ll take some ownership of that just because that was a short timeout and I ran on the floor to check on DK,” Redick said. “And then I ran back and I didn’t have time to really get us the right substitutions and matchups that I would have wanted. And that’s not a knock on CK, but I just kind of put him in a tough spot knowing that Jokic was going to go quick.”
After Reaves missed a jumper that would have put the Lakers up by two, Murray (26 points, five assists, four rebounds) sprung free out of a pick-and-roll with Jokic and knocked down a pull-up 3-pointer for a 129-126 Nuggets lead – just the latest big shot he has hit against the Lakers.
“[Jokic and I] were tangled up, trying to get up there when I saw Murray come up,” Knecht said of the play. “And CK told me to go out there and switch. It was kind of hard.”
Westbrook (17 points, seven assists, six rebounds) picked off Shake Milton’s inbounds pass on the Lakers’ ensuing possession, scoring the game-sealing basket.
After leading by 11 in the first and keeping the game close at halftime, trailing 71-67, the Lakers were on the cusp of being blown out before they used a 19-9 run to close the third quarter and cut a 13-point deficit to 102-99.
Knecht, starting near his hometown of Thornton, Colorado, had his highest-scoring game since mid-November.
“I told him in the huddle, I said, ‘Hey, if you want to shoot it, shoot it. I don’t care if you shoot it 35 times, we’re going to need every bucket you can get,’” Reaves said of Knecht. “So he’s a hooper.”
Milton (16 points, five rebounds, three assists) and two-way guard Jordan Goodwin (10 points, six rebounds) both scored in double figures for the Lakers with the increased playing time opportunities.
Koloko (eight points, seven rebounds) impressed with his second-half defense, altering multiple shots at the rim that didn’t end with blocks and denying Jokic the ball late.
“The spirit was great,” said Redick, whose team had an eight-game winning streak before this trip. “It’s been that and will continue to be that. And I think it was a good opportunity for a number of guys to play bigger minutes, Shake, in particular. Christian, defensively, in the second half was awesome. So happy for those guys that they played well.”
Despite feeling under the weather, Bronny James played 16 minutes and contributed five points.
LeBron James missed his third straight game with a left groin strain and returned to Los Angeles along with Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy) and Jaxson Hayes (bruised right knee) ahead of the Lakers’ game in Denver.
“We went 0-4, so it’s a pretty bad trip,” Reaves said. “But JJ said a week ago, ‘Everybody’s like Lakers in five.’ So we just don’t listen to any of it. We know when we’re fully healthy and got everybody on the team that we have a really good chance to beat anybody.
“I just see this group, coming together, locking in on one common goal and that’s to win. And [Friday] is the biggest testament to that. Very shorthanded and went and played a really good basketball team with probably the best player in the world. And went toe to toe and had an opportunity to win it. Just didn’t execute the last 50 seconds.”
Local News
Amalia Holguin dazzles but Sage Hill girls basketball falls to Carondelet in CIF state Division I final
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SACRAMENTO — It’s been just over five years since Kobe Bryant and eight others died in a tragic helicopter crash. It’s been nine months since four of Bryant’s proteges from his Mambas youth girls basketball team graduated from Sage Hill.
Yet, with his youngest apprentice — Amalia Holguin — still playing for the Lightning and coach Kerwin Walters still at the helm, the influence of the Lakers great remains immense.
“Kobe is always going to be straight in the heart for all of us,” Walters said this week, “especially for myself and Amalia. It’s just really, really a personal thing. But he’s always going to be there.”
Bryant’s vision for Sage Hill continued to unfold Friday night at the CIF State championships.
The Lightning aspired for a second state title in four seasons as they squared off against Carondelet in the Division I final at Golden 1 Center.
With Holguin wowing the crowd with her 3-point shooting and passing, Sage Hill brought the energy. Unfortunately, the Lightning struggled at the foul line, and it cost them.
Sage Hill made 4 of 14 free throws and fell to Carondelet 51-48 in its bid to become a two-time state champion.
Carondelet sank 8 of 11 foul shots, including all four of its chances in the final 45 seconds for the final points of the game.
Walters, in his 13th season, and Holguin, the youngest player on Bryant’s famed youth team, shared a long embrace after the final buzzer as the Cougars (30-6) celebrated their first state title since 2004.
“This one hurts,” said Walters, who led Sage Hill to the state Division II title in 2022. “They hit free throws, we didn’t. If you can see the numbers, that’s where it all falls right now.”
“It’s abnormal for us,” the coach added. “We’re generally in the low 70s, mid 70s in free throw percentage.”
Sage Hill (23-12) missed a 3-pointer in the closing seconds in a chance to force overtime
Holguin, a junior, hit two of her four 3-pointers in the fourth period en route to a game-high 21 points. While her long-range shooting impressed the crowd, so did her spin move and assist to Kamdyn Klamberg (13 points) to give Sage Hill a 48-47 lead with about one minute left.
The play came off one of Holguin’s four steals.
Sage Hill started two freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors.
“(Bryant) always wanted us to look in the mirror every day,” Holguin said. “I’m going to go home and probably watch some film on this and see how we can get better already for next year. … We’re always looking toward the future and I think we have a bright one.”
Carondelet led by as many as seven points in the first half before taking a 24-18 lead into intermission.
Holguin (10 points) and Klamberg (eight points) combined for all of the Lightning’s first-half points while seven players scored for Carondelet.
The Lightning received more contributions in the second half as freshman Addison Uphoff scored eight points and finished with six rebounds. Freshman center Eve Fowler scored four points to go along with four blocks and nine rebounds.
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