happy ash wednesday and other inappropriate greetings

it isn't a holy day of obligation, you know; do so many people go to church today because they get something?

whence the ashes? I was thinking these things while scrubbing mortar from clinker bricks that were in our chimney, and will soon be edging planting beds around our house

I thought it was mourning, but maybe it is penitence, but that's a very OT thing, like saying / writing / thinking "that's a very OT thing" is very contemporary

Thomas Talley, an expert on the history of the liturgical year, says that the first clearly datable liturgy for Ash Wednesday that provides for sprinkling ashes is in the Romano-Germanic pontifical of 960.

before that, it signified jopining one of the myriad lay orders, the order of penitents

http://www.americancatholic.org

Catholic Encyclopedia says 8th century.

"Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return."

but what about this whole lent idea? it is pretty old, but used to be a few days, and sometimes was a few days before being baptised, not before easter

does it mean springtime? why fast?

back to the mortar scrubbing



ashes to ashes, dust to dust; we know thatnks to bill and ted and kansas, that we are all just dust blowing inthe wind is an older idea, about as old as ashes for penitence

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