Lent in Mystery 02/18/2010
"Um...you have a little smudge on your forehead..."
"Oh, my, I forgot it was Ash Wednesday!"
"Hey, you got your ashes, God bless you!"
"Do you have any Fastnachts?"
These are just a few of the comments I recall from my day yesterday in your typical retail environment. I was able to squeek away from work for Holy Mass at noon and receive my ashes. After returning to the store I spent the next eight hours, only sometimes conscious of the black mark on my head. When someone would make a comment I would recall this little mark traced on my person by the priest.
It gave me pause today while sitting here thinking and praying. This little mark is so odd...ashes on the forehead. It made me thinking of the incensing of the altar during the High Mass. The priest swings the thurible back and forth over and around the altar. What is he doing? Is the incense making the altar smell better? Is it coating the altar in "holy smoke"? Don't take me as speaking sarcastically here, but rather, pondering the mystery before us.
These liturgical actions are part of the Sacred Mystery, as opposed to the pragmatism of modernism. The smoke and fire, ashes and water, of course represent things, they are symbols...sacramentals. On another level, they lift the spirit to God through the mystery itself. While I watch the priest incense the altar, something is happening deep in my soul that is drawing me to God...in a way, my soul's altar is being incensed and prepared to receive our Blessed Lord. This is the heart of contemplation, where the soul is receptive to the minute movements of grace.
When it comes to the cross traced on my forehead by the priest, again, this represents a great moment of contemplation. We are not tracing the cross ourselves, but rather only kneel there, receptively. We receive from the priest, "in persona Christi", the cross...as well as Christ Himself. We are like St. John, leaning on the chest of our Blessed Jesus...receiving what He gives...and accepting all.
God bless you this Lent as you wait upon the Lord.
"Oh, my, I forgot it was Ash Wednesday!"
"Hey, you got your ashes, God bless you!"
"Do you have any Fastnachts?"
These are just a few of the comments I recall from my day yesterday in your typical retail environment. I was able to squeek away from work for Holy Mass at noon and receive my ashes. After returning to the store I spent the next eight hours, only sometimes conscious of the black mark on my head. When someone would make a comment I would recall this little mark traced on my person by the priest.
It gave me pause today while sitting here thinking and praying. This little mark is so odd...ashes on the forehead. It made me thinking of the incensing of the altar during the High Mass. The priest swings the thurible back and forth over and around the altar. What is he doing? Is the incense making the altar smell better? Is it coating the altar in "holy smoke"? Don't take me as speaking sarcastically here, but rather, pondering the mystery before us.
These liturgical actions are part of the Sacred Mystery, as opposed to the pragmatism of modernism. The smoke and fire, ashes and water, of course represent things, they are symbols...sacramentals. On another level, they lift the spirit to God through the mystery itself. While I watch the priest incense the altar, something is happening deep in my soul that is drawing me to God...in a way, my soul's altar is being incensed and prepared to receive our Blessed Lord. This is the heart of contemplation, where the soul is receptive to the minute movements of grace.
When it comes to the cross traced on my forehead by the priest, again, this represents a great moment of contemplation. We are not tracing the cross ourselves, but rather only kneel there, receptively. We receive from the priest, "in persona Christi", the cross...as well as Christ Himself. We are like St. John, leaning on the chest of our Blessed Jesus...receiving what He gives...and accepting all.
God bless you this Lent as you wait upon the Lord.
