My husband and I always joke that Catholics come out of the woodwork for Ash Wednesday. You may have not seen these Catholics all year long, but they all show up for their ashes. This used to frustrate me, but now I kind of enjoy it. It's sort of neat that people want to come to mass on the one day of the year that we receive a physical marking of our faith. I have a slight confession to make about this marking, and it is quite humbling to admit this. I write posts on prayer and fasting and growing closer to Christ, and yet when it comes to wearing ashes on my forehead as a physical sign of my faith...
I wipe them off.
Eh-Hem! I wipe them off. That's right, I am that vain and not proud of it at all. I kept them on almost all day, but when I had to go to the grocery store, I "accidently" kept touching my forehead, not wanting to be told, "Hey you have some dirt on your face" by a hundred people at the grocery store. I don't know why this scenario scares me so much, but it does. So this is my act of humility for the day: to confess to the whole blog world that I am a wimp when it comes to wearing ashes on my forehead. Maybe by next Ash Wednesday I will have grown enough in humility to stop caring what people are thinking of me and the "dirt" on my forehead and view it for what it is: a great opportunity to share my faith.
Alive not Dead: an Adventure through Life
8 years ago
Hi! Sorry I haven't been commenting lately! I just wanted to say that you have a great attitude about all the people in Mass on Ash Wednesday. Tonight as we were pulling into a full parking lot, I said to my DH, "I bet half the people here don't know that this isn't a holy day of obligation!"
ReplyDeleteI think I need to kick my pride to the curb!
Funny you wiped them off for the grocery store because I made a quick run tonight, and I saw three people with ashes on their foreheads. :)