How long is one required to wear the ashes?

[Spencerian]

As everyone knows, today is Ash Wed. Today in mass today’s reading was about when Jesus said to his desiples not to fast openly or look tired or something like that to make a show about their faith but to do it privetly.

My question is this, the ash that the priest spreads on your forhead, should i leave it to desplay my faith? or should i wash it off?

Hi, there.

It’s not surprising that it seems Christ is giving us a paradox in practice. In truth, it’s not.

By my catechism, Ash Wednesday is the one day where we **all **show a sign of **mutual **penance. With a mutual penance, then, Christ’s instructions to his followers when they prayed or fasted individually is not generally applicable here.

That said, it is good form not to go around intentionally drawing attention based on your daily work. For instance, ashes on the forehead may not be practical if you are serving food to others, so in such circumstances the ashes should be removed.

But if you can leave them on all day, it is a good sign of collective penance with other Christians.

 

[TheDoctor]

As everyone knows, today is Ash Wed. Today in mass today’s reading was about when Jesus said to his desiples not to fast openly or look tired or something like that to make a show about their faith but to do it privetly.

My question is this, the ash that the priest spreads on your forhead, should i leave it to desplay my faith? or should i wash it off?

First, you need to understand what Christ is saying. He is not saying that all almsgiving, prayer or fasting should be private (if he was, then how do we explain Mass?). What he was teaching against were those who made a public display of their charity, holiness or piety to call attention to and give honor to themselves rather than doing it for the glory of God.

With that in mind, the question of leaving the ashes on is more social than it is biblical. When I have gone to get them at an early mass, I have left them on at work. The responses have been everything from “Hey, your forehead is dirty” to “Oh, yeah, forgot you are Catholic” to “Dang! It’s Ash Wednesday, is there a late Mass” to “I really never asked, but why do Catholics get ashes”.

In short, do what is comfortable for you given the situation you are in.

 

[Mrs_Sally]

There is no requirement to remove the ashes, nor is there one to leave them on. Since I went to a 7:30pm Mass, no one much saw my ashes afterward and I washed my face when I got home because I was going to bed soon. If I had gone to a 7:30am Mass, I probably would have left the ashes on until they wiped off naturally. And then I would have gotten pretty much the same responses that TheDoctor gets.

All that said, I have washed my ashes off when the priest was overzealous and I ended up with ash smeared everywhere on my face!

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

since wearing of the ashes is not a sacrament, would it be somehow inappropriate to wash one’s face or wiped off the ashes after having left the service?

I may receive my ashes during lunch. So when I return to work, the ashes would definately draw attention to myself (ie, in the elevator, during a meeting, etc). Not that I would mind the curious glances I would receive, I would mind if others thought I was trying to take it as an opportunity to rub my holiness in their faces (many of my co-workers are atheists)

See it as an opportunity to evangelize. Wash one’s face before going to bed Wednesday night.

 

[Don9of11]

since wearing of the ashes is not a sacrament, would it be somehow inappropriate to wash one’s face or wiped off the ashes after having left the service?

I may receive my ashes during lunch. So when I return to work, the ashes would definately draw attention to myself (ie, in the elevator, during a meeting, etc). Not that I would mind the curious glances I would receive, I would mind if others thought I was trying to take it as an opportunity to rub my holiness in their faces (many of my co-workers are atheists)

I was not bothered in any way having ashes on my forehead nor was I concerned how others would see me. In fact I was very proud of the fact, besides the ashes were mostly gone by the following morning anyway; a quick shower and shave and they were gone.

 

[chriso]

On the other hand, one can choose to continue wearing them - it’s certainly a great witness to others, who tend to get curious about why we do it, what it means, etc.

Yes, you might get misunderstood, but then Jesus was also misunderstood. It comes with the territory, sadly.

Yup, Biden sure witnessed good for us didnt he? Wonder if he took a day off from his promotions of a Health Care bill ensureing public funding of abortions?

 

[brotherhrolf]

“Here in south Louisiana,” says brotherrolf

Lucky you, here in North Louisiana it “sucks” to put it mildly. My son has to listen to Catholic “slams” all the time from the self righteous, prideful people up here that are so sure their denomination is the “right” one. Today he will just not go to school as it is a Holy Day - he had enough “slams” yesterday about it. However, it is TOTALLY fine to miss school for Mardi Gras . Up here it is a constant lesson on “how to suffer for the faith”, not that it compares to what the saints went through in the past.

I think I have a good idea of what you are going through. I live in the Florida Parishes. There is no Catholic church in my town and my neighbors think that we are witches and freak out because we have a small statue of St. Francis in our garden.

 

[tinalewis]

One of my guilty pleasures is to goof on RCIA participants.

When my husband was in RCIA last year he asked this question when we returned home from receiving our ashes. Now, to let you know that my husband and I are both originally from New York City where everyone receives ashes on Ash Wednesday, Catholic or not. And everyone walks around wearing them through Wednesday evening.

So, to goof on him, I told him he couldn’t wash his face, he has to let the smudge wear off naturally. And he believed me, even though he knew full well that he didn’t see people on the streets in NYC with black or gray foreheads past Thursday morning.

To answer OP’s question: I wash mine off as soon as I get home.

 

[Jane11]

To whoever lives in the Florida Parishes: thank you! I am very happy to report that the entire Cathedral was packed at the 12:05 Mass on Ash Wednesday; young, old and every age in between , so I didn’t feel as alone!

 

[GwenL]

Some good advice I got:

If you want to leave the ashes on, wash them off.

If you want to wash them off, leave them on.

I left mine on all day. I am a grad student at a very secular, very humanist public university, and nearly all of the students and professors in my department are atheists. It was a good lesson in humility for me, as well as an opportunity to proclaim the faith. I was a bit unconfortable at first, and then walked by a guy in a Sikh turban. He had no problem wearing something that proclaimed his faith to the entire world–so why would I? Later, I had an encounter with my professor/advisor, who kindly told me “you have a smudge on your forehead.” I gently told him it was Ash Wednesday. After he picked up his jaw from the floor, we continued to discuss my thesis schedule .