Ash Wednesday

In my quest to fully embrace Catholicism, I have found this book to be invaluable: The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day.  Meredith Gould takes you through the entire liturgical year, drawing on practices from around the globe to help you build your own traditions here at home. 

For instance, do you know that pretzels are a traditional Lenten bread?  They can be eaten throughout the season (although not to the point of gluttony, of course).  So, I think we may try our hand at making some homemade ones over the next 40 days.

For Ash Wednesday, we'll be celebrating at home.  Today, we'll take down all of the palm fronds that we've had up since last Palm Sunday, burning them, mixing the ashes with holy water and a little oil, and performing our own little marking ceremony.  Although Ash Wednesday is always one of the most crowded Masses of the year, it is not a holy day of obligation.  We've decided to keep this day as one for our Domestic Church.