OSV Daily Take Blog: Shaw: Lent, Ash Wednesday and getting ‘real’.

Why is it that Ash Wednesday and Lent remain relatively popular even in highly secularized times like these? It’s a serious question that touches on matters deeper than might at first be supposed.The popularity I speak of can be seen year after year on Ash Wednesday, when people – some of them perhaps not all that often in church – stream up the aisle to get their ashes. Not a few then return for Mass or Stations of the Cross on weekdays during Lent. How come? Read more

English: Ashes imposed on the forehead of a Christian on Ash Wednesday. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)