Ash Wednesday

Its Ash Wednesday - the first day of Lent. Normally, I would barely give this day a second thought. But these days, our family seems to be absorbed by Catholicism. Very strange. Before today, there was maybe one other time that we (the boys and I) went to church on Ash Wednesday. Im positive that one time was prompted by a call from my mother - not by my burning desire to observe the first day of Lent. However... things are different this year. Between the boys experiencing their first year at Catholic school and Matt preparing to become Catholic, our family is all Catholic, all the time.

Matt celebrated along with us today - his first Ash Wednesday as an almost Catholic. I think he was really excited by the idea. I dont know if he'd admit that, but I definitely sensed some anticipation last night when we were talking about today's events. Since I was the morning volunteer in the health office, I went with Finn and his class to 8am mass and Matt decided to attend the 12 noon mass with Seamus and his class. Isnt that sweet? The two of them sat together during the service and recieved their ashes together. Im sure that Seamus was totally thrilled to have Matt there. I wish I could have seen them.

When I was a student at St. Francis we all had ashes. It wasnt a weird thing. They were like a badge of honor - as if having them made us super holy or something. I remember wanting to keep mine on all day. The darker they were, the better. But when I got into high school, I remember feeling kind of weird walking around with what looked like a big bruise on my forehead. Its not really like I was ashamed of the ashes. I wasnt. But I didnt particularly want to stand out as different from the crowd. Those ashes made it impossible to be inconspicuous.

Today when I spoke to Matt after mass, he told me his ashes were DARK. He said the man who gave him his ashes had big thumbs. Hearing that made me giggle. I imagined Matt walking around his work with this huge black splotch on his forehead: big and dark. When I finally saw him earilier tonight, it was as bad as I had imagined. Matt's ashes were HUGE and DARK and totally EXPOSED, but he didnt seem to mind. In fact, at one point this afternoon he accidently smeared his ashes down the side of his face without knowing it. Rookie mistake. Its ok, though. He's going to have many years to get used to it.