Turn away from sin, and be faithful to the Gospel

Here in the Chicago archdiocese, where our clergy tend to be a pretty Vatican II lot, that prayer will be uttered innumerable times today by men (and some women) with blackened thumbs.

The more traditional prayer, still in the missal, goes, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  I admit I use them both when I'm distributing ashes - no rhyme or reason.  I tend to use the more traditional formula on young children, for whom sin and temptation are still probably several years away.

My experience of Ash Wednesday is that it rivals Christmas and Easter for pulling Catholics into churches who don't often come to church.  Our parish parking lot will be packed to bursting, especially at the late-afternoon service, which seems to draw a lot of families with children.  We'll be distributing ashes at four other times as well.  We don't have enough clergy to cover all the stations at all times, so Eucharistic Ministers help out.  In fact, we usually have a lay person lead the noon prayer service, because there isn't a priest or deacon available at that time.

I've spent most of my career working in corporate offices - a couple of decades working for a high tech-ish company that hired a lot of young people.  There was a fair amount of turnover, as young people don't always settle in to their first or second jobs out of school, so I saw a lot of them come and go over the years.  Each year on Ash Wednesday, it was interesting to see who was walking around the office with the thumbprint smudges on their foreheads.  Most of them didn't seem to be regular churchgoers, but they went and got ashes each year.

Catholics, by and large, aren't comfortable with the notion of sharing their faith and evangelizing.  But on this day of the year, in droves they give quiet but profound witness to their faith.