Ash Wednesday – the Lenten Journey Begins!

It’s the time of year when we begin our Lenten journey. For most people I know, Catholic or not, Ash Wednesday kicks off our 40 days of Lent, a season of self reflection and reconciliation.

Also, for those who know me, you know I struggle with the Catholic church. I believe in God and I pray. I celebrate Sundays with a Zoom Mass that includes a group of people that feel like me. The priest serves us and preaches just like I’m used to but we discuss the homily as a group after he provides his reflection and thoughts. We all contribute to the prayers of the faithful any find out how everyone is doing. It is fulfilling and has taken the place of my Sunday Mass routine prior to my divorce.

I haven’t “left the church” but I have struggled with many areas of the church…mostly things that we all question, and I decided not to attend because I am not a cafeteria Catholic, picking and choosing what I want to believe. Okay, no preaching and no judging from me!

Today, I started my Lenten project which does NOT include giving up anything. I told my Dad that I promise not to fuss at him for the next six weeks! We had a few laughs about that. I told my Mom that I would avoid sarcasm with her, knowing that she really can’t handle it and I forget that. This is the start of my Lenten project. I’ll be cutting back on sweets and alcohol, but not giving them up. I will be doing positive things during Lent.

After a visit to the doctor with my Mom today, we saw “Drive Thru Ashes” at a church in our neighborhood. We went home to pick up my Dad and told him we were going to get ashes.

I pulled into the parking lot and headed to the small pop-up canopy where we found the female pastor and three TV cameras. The cameras were rolling as a put everyone’s window down…The minister asked me what brought us to them today and I told her the idea of ashes without getting out of the car…we laughed and then she started with me, “Child of God, remember that you are dust, and you will return to dust. God loves you.” I replied Amen. She then went to Mom and Dad on the other side of the car and repeated these words. They provided us with a little bit about the church and the we started to pull away, when the camera man pulled out his microphone and asked me to talk with him.

Now, as you can imagine, with my level of shyness, I jumped at the opportunity to talk. He asked a few questions and then we left. We had a good laugh, wondering if we would be on the news.

As the news hours started to arrive, we began flipping the channels, recording each station and acting as though we would be making our debut and looking for agents tomorrow.

Luckily, a few friends were watching the news and saw me on the “upcoming” story section and let me know.

Immediately, I went and interrupted Mom and Dad and their routine of watching their favorite news and turned to the channel that I had been spotted.

After watching the weather a couple of times, and afternoon traffic, the story hit the air. I’ll spare you the details and just let you watch, but honestly, I’m pretty pleased with the performance!! I’ll let you in on a little secret…I don’t think anyone would even know that I was in a sticky place with my faith!

So, enjoy this debut of Lisa & the ashes!! I’ve posted a couple of pictures of the ashes, which must have been a mixture of the roasted palms from last year and a few teaspoons of blacktop sealer!! The crosses on our foreheads were shiny and slowly began to fill in our facial wrinkles! No kidding!

 https://www.wdrb.com/news/louisville-congregations-celebrate-ash-wednesday/article_7ae540f0-b2c2-11ed-bb4c-e7bc1b34cb01.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

We broke the rule of letting it wear off…we had to wash these works of art off of our heads before going to bed. Whatever your thoughts are about Ash Wednesday or Lent, there is something about the tradition and for now, I’ll take it!