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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Catholic magnet

Frank: "You look like a ghost."

I have a new nickname for Ash Wednesday besides Catholic identification day. If you work in a secular place and you get your ashes early, it's the day you become a "Catholic magnet." I swear.

Here are the responses I've gotten to my ashes so far:

College intern: "Oh! I need to get my ashes too!" and went on to tell me about Mass times at her parish. I had no idea she was Catholic.

Co-worker: "It's always a bummer when Ash Wednesday comes because my wife and I have to come up with meatless meals twice in one week!" I did not know he was Catholic.

Random Hispanic lunch guy (pointing at my head): "You got yours early! Great!" Thank you, random citizen!

I work at possibly the most secular place you can imagine and I expected to see nobody else with ashes today.

I was right. I haven't seen anybody else with ashes.

But what I did NOT expect was that all the other Catholics I encounter would come crawling out of the woodwork to let me know, "Hey! I'm Catholic too!"

It's kinda cool.

6 comments:

  1. AWESOME. Yes, it does bring out the best in some people! :) Haha, I remember I went to Rome over Ash Wednesday and we said Mass and we were walking around the Vatican, scoffing (I admit), "Well, we'll see who's *really* Catholic and who's just here for the view!" NOT. A. SINGLE. PERSON. HAD. (okay, the all-caps thing is a bit annoying) - ashes on their forehead. So we were standing around feeling slightly miffed about the world, and then we met up with a seminarian from the US, and he's all like, "Oh, yeah, here in Europe, they put just a little bit of the ash on your head." And then we facepalmed. Anyway. I love your blog!!! :) Have a wonderful day! :) God bless.

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    1. Thanks Peregrin!! Ha, that's too funny. I would have thought the same thing though. It's interesting how these customs can really differ country to country!

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  2. I was grocery shopping last night with my ashes (which were exceptionally dark this year) spread all over my forehead and was so excited to see a young couple in the produce aisle also sporting their ashes. We waved at each other and smiled, feeling a bit united as Catholics. Very cool.

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    1. Aw, that's so nice! I would have been so excited. I actually never did run into anyone else with ashes all day, although I did see a few people on the street with them.

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  3. That is really cool!! What a great opportunity to meet other Catholics.

    By the way, if you're a ghost you're quite the lovely one. :)

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