Experts share basics of Ash Wednesday
By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer
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| A mother and her infant receive ashes from Catholic Bishop Francis DiLorenzo.
Advertiser library photo • March 3, 2000 |
Mainline Protestants (Episcopalians and Lutherans, for example) and Roman Catholics today celebrate the beginning of Lent by pressing ashes to their foreheads, often in the form of a cross. The rite symbolizes sorrow and repentance for the 40-day spiritual preparation for Easter.
"Last year, we had some beautiful ashes, if ashes can be beautiful," said Barbara Akeo. "The year before was awful. Full of clumps." The Rev. Tom Gross, pastor at St. John Vianney Catholic parish in Enchanted Lake, says the trick for good ashes is putting them through a strainer.
"You don't want to be grinding it into people's foreheads," he said.
In honor of Ash Wednesday, all the things you wanted to know about ashes but were afraid to ask:
Q. Where do ashes come from?
A. "If you want to be liturgically correct, from palms ... or from the crematorium," Gross said.
WHAT?
"Just joking!" said Gross, vicar general for the Honolulu diocese.
You start by collecting the palms distributed on Palm Sunday the previous year, then you clean up the drum on your favorite barbecue, then you ...
"Just fire up the Weber?" we asked Jeffrey Fontinilla, business manager for St. Philomena's, a Catholic church in Salt Lake.
"Pretty much," he said with a laugh. "You wash it out, clean it, and fire 'em up. That's it."
The method of burning is not prescribed, said Gross. Some places even use a blow torch.
Q. Where do palms for the ashes come from?
A. At St. Philomena's, they use areca palms that grow along their fence. This is Hawai'i, after all.
St. John the Baptist and Our Lady of the Mount parishes used to request palms from St. Anthony's Retreat Center, but Sister Rose there said she the work was too much for her gardener.
Some churches order them. At San Diego Church Supply, 100 palm strips ("like you'd find in the Holy Land," its Web site says) sell for $8.80 to $10.25 per bag. They come trimmed and without the dreaded white flies that Akeo said make cleaning of them a chore.
Or one can order prepared ashes ($6.25, enough for 200 foreheads) from San Diego Church Supply.
Q. How are the ashes blessed?
A. They're actually blessed twice: The palms were blessed the previous year, plus the ashes are re-blessed by the parish priest, Gross said.
On the Web: These Web sites offer background information about Ash Wednesday:
- Catholic Encyclopedia
www.newadvent.org/cathen/01775b.htm - Women for Faith & Family
www.wf-f.org/AshWed.html - Ash Wednesday in the Lutheran Church
www.suite101.com/article.cfm/lutheranism/61697
