Today is actually the first day of Lent.
All Catholics go to church to have the Priest Mark them as sinners with the sign of the cross on their foreheads.
These ashes come from burning the palms we received the previous year on Palm Sunday.
Here in Missouri, these are my findings. I cannot say what is happening in other states. I pray it is not the same.
Catholics will make a sacrifice today by fasting. Also, today is the day we begin depriving ourselves of something we truly like or enjoy for the duration of Lent to show our remorse and repentance of having sinned. This is a very pious holy day and to be taken seriously, especially by cradle Catholics.
This year however the Episcopal church ( Holy Catholic Church) Diocese. has decided to not have skin-to-skin contact. Instead, they have opted for baggies of ashes and a Q tip for each parishioner to apply their ashes themselves! What?!?!? They have not discovered the use of gloves? This is sacrilegious
They had already taken Communion out of the priest's hands and made it a joke with their little plastic chalices containing a piece of wafer and wine. Now they are desecrating holy days.
The Holy church made all Catholics as children learn prayers, rituals, holy day observation, the meaning of sacraments and now they throw it all away. All the hours of memorizing prayers, Learning the mass in Latin, learning the Rosary, stations of the cross, and knowing each and every ritual by heart. Because you could not be a sincere Catholic and give your heart to Jesus if you did not. Saying bedtime prayers and morning prayers and Grace before any meal or morsel can be put into our mouths is no longer necessary! The Vatican in all its splendor has thrown our religion away.
When we were children and readied for a sacrament we were so proud and so pius! Oh, it was a wonderful feeling to be a Catholic it was a privilege that we appreciated! Our little blue Baltimore catechisms we still treasure so reverently today, our scapulars, our Rosery, and our first Gold crucifix we wore and never took it off for any reason! Tithing was something we did with pride, ten percent or more because we loved Jesus and wanted to be like him.
Was it all a sham? The Pope does away with all of it like it is nothing. They replace rituals at their whims. Religion has become nothing. The church exists for parishioners to donate and nothing more. where is the reverence of Priests Bishops and Cardinals?
Today priests can become Realtors, Landlords, or anything else they desire. They do not find being a spiritual leader a full-time job any longer. Today they chase after their own greedy desires and forget the people who ARE the church. Where is the leadership? where is the comfort of knowing we are doing right by still believing? Where is our Catholicism? We have been abandoned and made fools. They molested our young and now they have been found out and they just decided to stop the charade of being Holy. I remember when you viewed a priest as an image of God, he represented God to us. He was Holy!
Where did all that go?
What do Catholics do now? We have no church, no beautiful rituals, no piety. We are left broken and hurt and not even understanding what happened. I for one cannot believe that God our Lord and Savior would play such an evil joke on his faithful followers. If we cannot respect and revere our priests, who shall lead us? Who shall help us save our souls?
Where do we go from here?