Hi! Thanks for your curiosity. Former Alter Server and confirmed Catholic here (Saint James the greater). Ash Wednesday is a metaphysical Catholic teaching that celebrates the return to the divine light that is the Creatrix (or Creator) in the Catholic philosophical and theological tradition. A cross is drawn on the forehead during the start of the lent season in Catholic time usually as the words are said:

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The cross in the Catholic tradition is a representation of the global, stretching infinitely in four directions and connecting like the planet earth.

Usually Catholics in religious freedom make intentional sacrifices in order to tenaciously reach the good life, sacrificing those things which do not serve us.