Ash Wednesday

In Catholic tradition Ash Wednesday is the day after fat Tuesday which falls in February. Everyone goes to church and has the sign on the cross put on their forehead with blessed ashes (thus the Ash in Ash Wednesday). Katie, Natalie, and I ventured out to the closest church which happens to be named something like the Basilica Holy Shrine of Mary Queen of the Universe...quite the mouthful.

It is humongous and sadly there really isn't anything breathtaking or special about the inside. The part that I liked the most was shamrocks that were engraved on the white pillars in the aisles of the church.

The priest was awful. He sounded just like the priest from the movie Princess Bride. Odd voice and he talked so so so fast. Katie mentioned that he must have not wanted to be there to badly because he was spewing out words left and right and left no time in between anything before moving onto the next. The only part of the homily that I understood was that there would only be one collection and it was for the poor community so be generous. Other than that it was mostly mumbling...ahhhh!

It came time for Eucharist and people had no order for going up to receive. People were going out of the aisles both ways into other lines. There was no wine, not like they ran out but no wine to begin with. This was also the case at the basilica in Phoenix. Gram or Gramps do you know why this is?

We didn't receive our ashes in the right order either and it was another scattered mess. Looks like we will be finding a new church to attend because the three of us agreed we couldn't sit through another one of those. The only nice part was that we were out in 50 minutes and Katie and Natalie had plenty of time to get ready for work when they thought they would be pushing it with a predicted hour and a half mass time.

So I have given up sweets for lent. It will be tough but I had key lime pie (leftover from dinner last night) before church as my last little treat. I am now looking forward to Cadbury Cream eggs for Easter :)

I work from in a few hours and I think I will take a nap :) I work from 15:00-1:00 so I think I deserve a nap before I go :)

Good luck with your Lenten journeys everyone!