Have you ever seen ashes administered in this way?

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stbruno

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We have an East European priest in our parish this year. When administering ashes, he neglected to make them on the forehead signing with the cross. Instead, his technique was merely to sprinkle ashes on the top of the head instead along with reciting the prayer.

One other neighbor said, she was watching the Pope on cable tv prescribe the same tecnique, of pinching in his fingers some ashes, and droppin them on the head of the presentee.
Is this a east European way of administering ashes??:confused:
 
Remember there are different ways many of the sacraments can be performed.

One can baptise, for example, by full immersion, pouring, or I believe even sprinkling the water in an emergency situation. Or receive the Eucharist either kneeling or standing, on the tongue or in the hand.

Ashes aren’t even a sacrament, rather a sacramental. So no doubt there is even more leeway with how they can be distributed.
 
We need a GIRM reference here.

I have never seen the custom described, but, if it is reverent and in keeping with the message of the sacramental, I don’t see a problem.
 
A priest or vowed male religious customarily received the ashes on his tonsure on the crown of his head. Perhaps this is what the pope was doing. Were they priests and religious that he was imposing ashes on? Although it is true that sacramentals are a bit more free form, there are still some guidelines. There are two options listed for what is said while imposing ashes, for example.
 
I don’t remember what thread it was in, but just a day or two ago, someone here posted that what the original poster described is the traditional European way of administering ashes.
 
I remember reading, and I do not know where, that in the United States we received the permission to have ashes placed on our foreheads. Other parts of the world have ashes sprinkled on the top of the head (as seen by Pope Benedict XVI and other European nations). We assume that what is done in the United States is done in the rest of the world, when in fact it is in the United States that we usually ask for indults to not do what the rest of the world is doing.

Ashes on the top of the head would clear up some of the confussion that occurs as to whether we should wipe the ashes off our foreheads in conformity to what Jesus says about fasting and cleaning one’s face. If ashes were placed on the top on one’s head, very few people would know it was there and Jesus’ words about what the Father sees in secret, would make more sense. However, many people in the United States would strongly reject having ashes placed in one’s hair. We are too sophisticated to have our hair and head filled with ashes, it would “wreck” someone’s hairdo.
 
The Roman Missal has for Ash Wednesday:
“The priest then places ashes on those who come forward, saying to each:”
(Roman Missal, Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1985, page 77.)

On the one hand it does not mention the forehead. On the other hand, “sprinkles” does not seem the same as “places”.

The Latin text is: “Deinde sacerdos imponit cineres omnibus astantibus, qui ad ipsum accedunt, dicens singulis:”. (Missale Romanum, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2002, ISBN: 8820972719, page 198).
 
I watched the Ash Wednesday service from Rome which was televised on EWTN.

We noticed that many priests did just that–placed the ashes on top of a person’s head. Some made “cross signs” on the forehead. Both seemed to be equally acceptable to our Holy Father.
 
Someone suggested since the East Europeans were persecuted for their faith, the only means of protection was to worship in secret. So by marking their foreheads with ashes, it would be risking their life and the life of their families. Therefore the priests would only sprinkle ashes on their heads as a gesture of remembering our mortality on Ash Wednesday. Makes sense to me. However, the practice has not been lifted in many cases since they have been doing it since the 1940’s.
 
stbruno said:
We have an East European priest in our parish this year. When administering ashes, he neglected to make them on the forehead signing with the cross. Instead, his technique was merely to sprinkle ashes on the top of the head instead along with reciting the prayer.

One other neighbor said, she was watching the Pope on cable tv prescribe the same tecnique, of pinching in his fingers some ashes, and droppin them on the head of the presentee.
Is this a east European way of administering ashes??:confused:
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That’s how it’s done here and we’re pretty traditional here (Latin rite). I’ve never had it done otherwise and I’ve never had an ash cross on my forehead. It was totally new to me when I read about it here and I had been wondering for a long time how other people were able to notice some posters’ ashes.
 
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