I don’t mean show off as in actual showing off something that one does in reparation for sins, that never even went through my head until you mentioned it… I meant it more like just, show an outward sign of the Faith (who was it that was recently quoting something from a Pope saying that the outward signs, etc. used in the Mass should not be thought of as “conducive to impiety”?). I don’t know how it is where you live, but where I am, people don’t pay attention to each other unless something actually catches their eye. Those peaceful Christians you see would pass under the radar where I live. Not that all of us have that inner peace even though we do try to lead good lives, but that’s a different topic… Anyway, they’d pass under the radar unless they could catch someone’s eye. Usually, us Catholics who try to be faithful go completely unnoticed (could one say it is a side-effect of trying to be faithful? ah, but that’s a different topic again…), but this is a chance to give those who surround us a visible hint that the Church is still alive, that God is still there waiting for them. And how about those examples that have been given of people seeing the ashes on the forehead and thinking “oh yeah, it’s ash wednesday”? Or maybe by seeing the ashes another Catholic who may be a bit disheartened or lonely would be comforted a bit (we are allowed some small comforts, are we not?) and reminded that they are not the only one in the area; someone once posted that “Catholicism is not a lone wolf religion”, but it certainly feels like that most of the time.
Like I said, I don’t know how it is where you are, but where I live people don’t notice subtlety. This is a chance to try out bluntness. Well, subdued bluntness, anyway.
Unfortunately, you are right about those C&E&AW Catholics, though… sigh :nope:
