'Tis Ash Wednesday and I'm linking you to cooler places than here:
The Church Signs talk to each other about the tradition (If you haven't seen the Church Signs series, you've missed out)
40 Ways To Improve Your Lent, a 2004 article from the Milwaukee Catholic Herald newspaper. A nice and occasionally quirky balance of the three elements of Lenten practice: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Some people are being silly in the office, offering to draw ashes on each other's heads with a magic marker. Why be so jumpy about the simple need to purify ourselves, to clear our hearts and minds to listen more intently to the Gospel?
I left about half my ashes on - Father really smoodged me good and big this morning, and I had to cut them down a little and shake the extras out of my eyebrows! There's no regulation about what to do with them - worrying about that is superstitious. You can wipe them right off (the Europeans, who get ashed on the top of their heads, are expected to shake them right off, or brush them off), or leave them on and be a witness or bear a little embarassment for humility's sake. I left some on for both of those reasons, and they'll wear off through the day
So let's be thoughtful and a little more silent, thinking about what keeps us alive and what keeps this world turning, what gives us hope and propels our faith.
HT to Amy Welborn for some of the links and The Internet Monk for the cool graphic.
The Church Signs talk to each other about the tradition (If you haven't seen the Church Signs series, you've missed out)
40 Ways To Improve Your Lent, a 2004 article from the Milwaukee Catholic Herald newspaper. A nice and occasionally quirky balance of the three elements of Lenten practice: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
Some people are being silly in the office, offering to draw ashes on each other's heads with a magic marker. Why be so jumpy about the simple need to purify ourselves, to clear our hearts and minds to listen more intently to the Gospel?
I left about half my ashes on - Father really smoodged me good and big this morning, and I had to cut them down a little and shake the extras out of my eyebrows! There's no regulation about what to do with them - worrying about that is superstitious. You can wipe them right off (the Europeans, who get ashed on the top of their heads, are expected to shake them right off, or brush them off), or leave them on and be a witness or bear a little embarassment for humility's sake. I left some on for both of those reasons, and they'll wear off through the day
So let's be thoughtful and a little more silent, thinking about what keeps us alive and what keeps this world turning, what gives us hope and propels our faith.
HT to Amy Welborn for some of the links and The Internet Monk for the cool graphic.
2 comments:
I'm never sure whether to leave the ashes on or not, but it feels ironic to hear a reading that says, "let no one know you are fasting" and then go out with visible ashes on your forehead...
Very good point. VERY good point. I suppose the combination of a happy face with ashes works. Better a sorrowful face making people ask "what's wrong?"
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