We go to St. Joe’s for the 8 am. It’s about half full. I always like seeing Apollo from the Frager’s Hardware Store helping out at mass. Dawn declares that my ash smudge is pretty light and likely won’t last all day. I’m disappointed. I really prefer a big ol’ smudge. But I suppose the weak smudge is balanced somewhat by the fact that we got “Remember you are dust and to dust you will return” when we were getting smudged. I like that one much better than the “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel.”

I help usher at the 5:30 at St. Matt’s. Funny that they start about two minutes early, but I suppose people are going to be streaming in late anyway. Place is jam packed SRO by about 5:40.

I always love Ash Wednesday, getting to be so publicly marked as Catholic for the day. But then of course I feel guilty, when Christ tells us in today’s gospel,

When you pray,
do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.

And on this day when we fast and walk around with dirty faces:

[W]hen you fast,
anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.

But Monsignor reminds us in the homily that Lent is a season, a journey. It’s not just about today, but about the next forty (or so) days.