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VanitasVanitatum
Guest
I just don’t like seeing all the people and I missed the morning mass.
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T
TrueRomanCatholic
Guest
To be honest, I only recently found out Ash Wednesday was not a holy day of obligation. Your friends may not realize it’s no obligation for you to attend.
Regardless, I went that morning, and touched up the ash smear with a little eyeshadow throughout the day!
Regardless, I went that morning, and touched up the ash smear with a little eyeshadow throughout the day!
F
Flopfoot
Guest
Now some of you are looking at me funny
One reason is going to mass was unpleasant as a child, mom insisted on putting in hair gel and trying to comb the bloody thing, and even if I didn’t mind having to sit there quiet for 45 mins on a Sunday so much, having to go three times in one weekend especially to good friday where the format was different so you had no idea where you were up to or how much longer it would take, in the middle of the day (Australian heat in the fall) was something I dreaded every year.
Second reason is I don’t want to blur the lines between obligations and optional devotions. If other people can make you feel like you ought to go, then you end up going out of obligation to those people, even if their reasoning is that you ought to be doing it for God. Since you only learn what God wants of you through others like priests, parents etc. how do you keep your own idea of what God wants of you separate from what they think?
It doesn’t mean I never go to mass except on a Sunday, it’s just that I want to decide when I do. Maybe it’s a feast day of a saint that matters to me more than to other people. Maybe I just have some free time. But it gets complicated if other people see me going - then they say “hey you’re acting holier than usual now” and then if I get out of the routine of going regularly again I get the criticism and funny looks as if I’m doing something “bad” now even though I’ve actually just returned to baseline Catholicism
One reason is going to mass was unpleasant as a child, mom insisted on putting in hair gel and trying to comb the bloody thing, and even if I didn’t mind having to sit there quiet for 45 mins on a Sunday so much, having to go three times in one weekend especially to good friday where the format was different so you had no idea where you were up to or how much longer it would take, in the middle of the day (Australian heat in the fall) was something I dreaded every year.
Second reason is I don’t want to blur the lines between obligations and optional devotions. If other people can make you feel like you ought to go, then you end up going out of obligation to those people, even if their reasoning is that you ought to be doing it for God. Since you only learn what God wants of you through others like priests, parents etc. how do you keep your own idea of what God wants of you separate from what they think?
It doesn’t mean I never go to mass except on a Sunday, it’s just that I want to decide when I do. Maybe it’s a feast day of a saint that matters to me more than to other people. Maybe I just have some free time. But it gets complicated if other people see me going - then they say “hey you’re acting holier than usual now” and then if I get out of the routine of going regularly again I get the criticism and funny looks as if I’m doing something “bad” now even though I’ve actually just returned to baseline Catholicism
Tis_Bearself
Patron
Is there any way you can just get away from these annoying folks who are all up in your business so they won’t see whether you are going to Mass or not?
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CelticWarlord
Guest
If some of them are, it’s probably because they fear for your decision. It’s none of their business. I don’t go either, but then I’m not Catholic. I love the Mass and went today. I’ll probably go tomorrow too. But the ashes thing falls under some of the church’s oddities, as I perceive them, and does nothing to attract me toward a deeper communion with the Church.why are people weirded out by this?
Tis_Bearself
Patron
The ashes are meant to remind you of your impending death. Nothing odd about it. Pretty normal to me.
But even if you were Catholic, there’s no obligation to go.
But even if you were Catholic, there’s no obligation to go.
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