{"id":8260,"date":"2011-03-09T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T15:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=8260"},"modified":"2011-03-09T13:19:09","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T19:19:09","slug":"witnessing-by-wearing-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/09\/witnessing-by-wearing-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnessing by wearing ashes?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some bishops are encouraging Catholics to “wear their ashes with confidence to witness to their faith<\/a>.”\u00a0One Catholic bishop states:<\/p>\n

Please try not to rub off your ashes as soon as you leave church, but take the sign of the cross to all those that you meet – in your school, office, factory, wherever you may be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hmmm, what about\u00a0the Gospel reading<\/a> on Ash Wednesday?<\/p>\n

Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After all the creativity and confusion since the Second Vatican Council,\u00a0some voices are now calling for clearer Catholic identity, clearer markers of our Catholic tradition. Roman collars, nuns’ habits, meatless Fridays, Latin – such as these are to strengthen the commitment of the faithful and the clarity of the Church’s witness.<\/p>\n

I suppose any organization, Church included, needs certain social or anthropological mechanisms to sustain itself as an organization. Fine. But sometimes I fear that all this emphasis on “Catholic identity” is a\u00a0large step away from the Gospel – settling for the security of organized religion rather than the challenge of Jesus Christ. Or to put it another way, being more interested in the Church than the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

Fact is, I rather like, and believe in, habits and Latin chant and meatless Fridays and all sorts of Catholic and Christian markers. Today’s Gospel reminds me to keep questioning my motives and purifying my heart.<\/p>\n

I’ll give the last word to Bishop Robert R. Morneau, from\u00a0Liturgical Press’s Daily Reflections for Lent<\/a> (even though he quotes a Jesuit source!):<\/p>\n

What should our motivation be in giving alms, praying, and fasting? Is it that we receive public recognition or even eternal life? It would seem not. We do these righteous deeds because they have intrinsic value. In and of themselves, they promote life and are building blocks for the kingdom of God…<\/p>\n

St. Ignatious of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, gave his community a powerful motto: Ad majorem Dei gloriam<\/em> (“For the greater glory of God”). Here is the proper motivation for the Christian life.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Please try not to rub off your ashes as soon as you leave church, but take the sign of the cross to all those that you meet – in your school, office, factory, wherever you may be.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,91],"tags":[580,1147],"class_list":["post-8260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-liturgical-year","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-bishop-morneau"],"yoast_head":"\nWitnessing by wearing ashes? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/09\/witnessing-by-wearing-ashes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Witnessing by wearing ashes? 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