I thought every Christian knew

[KendraDZ1902]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

 

[Lenten_ashes]

I’m a convert too.

Didn’t know anything about it until mid-twenties.

Went downtown with my wife who was born Catholic and the clergy just happened to be outside the Cathedral distributing ashes so we got in line.

Later, a few years later, I learned about it’s origins and purpose, etc. From the Anglican church.

 

[Peccavi]

The Anglican Church in the UK has many Anglo-Catholics within many of whom are from the universities since modern Anglo-Catholicism stems from the Oxford Movement of the 19th Century which produced one Roman Catholic Cardinal from among these Anglo-Catholics. Anglo-Catholics are very well aware of the nature and origins of Catholic doctrine and belief and share with Catholics who follow the Roman Rite almost all the same theological positions save that of the authority of the Bishop of Rome. I am not surprised an Anglo-Catholic could explain the reason for Ash Wednesday.

 

[exnihilo]

I grew up in a liturgical church so I knew about Ash Wednesday. I can’t say exactly when I learned of it. I do wonder if in recent years some Protestant churches, or maybe the more low church branches, have reclaimed the practice of ashes. I know someone who works at a Baptist hospital and they have a distribution of ashes service.

 

[Zabdi_Premjit]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

I grew up Pentecostal, but I knew about Catholics using ashes for Ash Wednesday for as long as I can know. That said, maybe some of the people who asked you about them had never seen them. When I was a child in school, I occasionally saw them, but it was very uncommon. The last time I saw someone with ashes on their forehead was in middle school, maybe around fifteen years ago, so I can very much believe that many people have simply never seen the custom before. It’s really not that ubiquitous, at least where I live.

 

[Aslan10]

I grew up in a Presbyterian Church and knew about it as a child, but saw it as something other Christians do (it had nothing to do with Catholicism in my mind). As an Anglican, I love ash Wednesday, but I am ashamed to say I couldn’t go to receive the imposition of ashes yesterday. Forgive me.

I think what you experienced is not a product of other Christians ignorance, as much as it is the ignorance of the culture. Church is something quietly done on Sunday, to our society’s detriment.

 

[Wannano]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

A few years ago we were in Puerto Vallarta and people were lined up in droves to get ashes on their foreheads. I know this happens on Ash Wednesday but have have no clue why it is done so I am admitting ignorance. So far in the 6 answers in this thread no one has given the meaning rather have just talked about “getting their ashes”. I am interested in being informed of the rationale.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

I’ve heard that many years ago, Protestants didn’t even accept Christmas day as a holiday. If that’s true, then I’m pretty sure they also did not observe Lent.

So I wonder when they started observing it

 

[Zabdi_Premjit]

I’ve heard that many years ago, Protestants didn’t even accept Christmas day as a holiday. If that’s true, then I’m pretty sure they also did not observe Lent.

So I wonder when they started observing it

It is only certain strains of Protestantism that rejected the celebration of Christmas, and they would not have Lent either. Mainstream Protestants have always celebrated Christmas, and the ones with some kind of liturgical year (e.g. Anglicans and Lutherans) have always had some sort of Lenten liturgical season, AFAIK. Of course, how much the season is emphasised or observed by them in practice will vary.

 

[Padres1969]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

Grew up Catholic and first got them in Kindergarten if I’m remembering correctly. So there was never any mystery about them for me with regard to their symbolism of mortality and repentance.

 

[Zabdi_Premjit]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

Your location is listed as the Heart of Dixie. Can I safely assume that Catholics are only a small minority where you are? Most parts of Dixieland aren’t exactly Popeland.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

It is only certain strains of Protestantism that rejected the celebration of Christmas, and they would not have Lent either. Mainstream Protestants have always celebrated Christmas, and the ones with some kind of liturgical year (e.g. Anglicans and Lutherans) have always had some sort of Lenten liturgical season, AFAIK. Of course, how much the season is emphasised or observed by them in practice will vary.

Makes sense

 

[Secant]

A few years ago we were in Puerto Vallarta and people were lined up in droves to get ashes on their foreheads. I know this happens on Ash Wednesday but have have no clue why it is done so I am admitting ignorance. So far in the 6 answers in this thread no one has given the meaning rather have just talked about “getting their ashes”. I am interested in being informed of the rationale.

We receive ashes that come from the burning of the Palms from last year’s Palm Sunday. There is a lot of symbolism packed into this simple action, but the main thrust is that we are called to repent and use this penitential season to grow closer to Christ.

OP, while I am Catholic and knew of this as long as I can remember, most of my friends were not Catholic because in both my current town and the town I grew up in, Catholicism is not a majority religion. However, there were enough to of us Catholics around that by the time I met them in middle school, they were already fully aware of this “weird” Catholic tradition and loved to use it as a reminder that it was time to avoid chocolate until Easter.

 

[josephback]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

I can’t remember, but possibly from Lutheran family members or Jack Chick? At any rate in yesteryear I would have been likely told that ashes were a hypocritical advertisement of fasting as those of the Pharisees, without understanding their origin or meaning. Now of course I know better.

 

[Xantippe]

I went to Mass and received my ashes before I came to work. So many people have asked me about them. I grew up protestant and I knew that people get ashes in their heads on Ash Wednesday. This has surprised me that so many of my non-Catholic Christian coworkers have no idea about them.
Obviously, being on CAF, everyone here knows about them, but when did you learn about ashes on Ash Wednesday?

Good to see you!

I first found out about ashes for Ash Wednesday when I was a college student.

 

[HollyDolly]

:thumbsup:I knew about them as a kid since I was Catholic and attended CCD classes;but my parents never went to Ash Wednesday services. If Angelicans and Lutherans practice some of the same lenten observances as Catholics ,that’s because Martin Luther had been a monk and Henry the Eight, even though he broke from Rome still followed most catholic practices of his time till he died. Saw where some methodist church in town was doingi it,but mainly here its the Catholics who do it.

 

[Mintaka]

Wannano asked where the ashes tradition comes from –

It’s from the Bible. Remember how the Israelites in troubled times were always putting on sackcloth (rough cloth made from black goathair) and ashes as a sign of repentance, and rending (ripping) their garments as a sign of mourning?

Well, we don’t usually wear hairshirts anymore or rip up our clothing to show our grief, but we do put ashes on. The priests also bless them to help us be more penitent, so blessed ashes are a sacramental.

As with most sacramentals (as opposed to Sacraments), you don’t have to be Catholic to receive ashes. Some people wash them off right after church, some people leave them on all day. It’s personal choice with no wrong answer.

 

[Wannano]

Wannano asked where the ashes tradition comes from –

It’s from the Bible. Remember how the Israelites in troubled times were always putting on sackcloth (rough cloth made from black goathair) and ashes as a sign of repentance, and rending (ripping) their garments as a sign of mourning?

Well, we don’t usually wear hairshirts anymore or rip up our clothing to show our grief, but we do put ashes on. The priests also bless them to help us be more penitent, so blessed ashes are a sacramental.

As with most sacramentals (as opposed to Sacraments), you don’t have to be Catholic to receive ashes. Some people wash them off right after church, some people leave them on all day. It’s personal choice with no wrong answer.

Thanks for the explanation. Interesting practice!

 

[MaryT777]

Wannano asked where the ashes tradition comes from –

It’s from the Bible. Remember how the Israelites in troubled times were always putting on sackcloth (rough cloth made from black goathair) and ashes as a sign of repentance, and rending (ripping) their garments as a sign of mourning?

Well, we don’t usually wear hairshirts anymore or rip up our clothing to show our grief, but we do put ashes on. The priests also bless them to help us be more penitent, so blessed ashes are a sacramental.

As with most sacramentals (as opposed to Sacraments), you don’t have to be Catholic to receive ashes. Some people wash them off right after church, some people leave them on all day. It’s personal choice with no wrong answer.

Well stated.

Mary.

 

[rcwitness]

Thanks for the explanation. Interesting practice!

Yes, a sign of burnt offerings/repentance. Just in case you’d like to see the first and the gospel Scripture readings from Ash Wed. I think are very appropriate. Also 2 Cor. 5:20-6:2
Joel 2

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.

Mark 6

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms,
do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you,
they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

“When you fast,
do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”