What are you doing tomorrow?

Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, and if this day finds you feasting on pancakes or jelly donuts or chocolate or beer - I presume you don't need much encouragement from me!

So, I'll direct your attention to tomorrow: Ash Wednesday.

There was a time, and it's still the case in many places, when Ash Wednesday would see hordes of people streaming into churches to be signed with an ashen cross on their foreheads.

My experience in suburbia, however, tells me that the Ash Wednesday crowds are generally smaller than the regular weekend numbers. Granted, some folks will go to Ash Wednesday services near their work sites but my guess is that a number of Catholics no longer count this the important day their parents and grandparets did.

And in some places, this is school vacation week and folks are away, skiing where it's colder or swimming where it's warmer.

Ash Wednesday is not a day of obligation but nonetheless it's a unique day on the church calendar and a powerful way to begin the Lenten season.

I encourage you, then, wherever you may be tomorrow, to make an effort to join a community for prayer and to be marked with the sign of the Cross by which we are saved.
2009LentPostCollection