How to make ashes

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mkat83

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Our parish has never collected old palms and burned them before, but this past Lent, my friend and I organized a collection and burning of old palms. People seemed very happy to have something structured to do with their old palms.

Some questions as we reflect and think about what to do differently next year:
  1. Any suggestions or tips on how to burn them?
  2. When you are left with the ashes, does anyone have a “recipe” of how to prepare the ashes for use on Ash Wednesday? The ones we burned were very, very dry and had some chunks. I suppose they would need to be sifted, and something added to them to give them some stickiness so that they would smear and stick on people’s foreheads. Someone suggested that holy water or oil be used. Does anyone know a good way to prepare the ashes?
 
yes you usually have to sift them. You can add a tiny tiny amount of oil to them but usually sifting them to a fine powder is enough. Usually when they are blessed with holy water that is just enough moisture to help them stick. Also the oils from the fingers of the ministers helps. I find that it sticks better after I have distributed ashes to the first 10 people on line and my thumb is a bit more oily.
 
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