by Jessica McDougald | Feb 17, 2021 | Opinion
My mom and I have been sneaking off to Catholic Mass each Ash Wednesday morning for the past few years. We spend the hour soaking our Baptist bones in Catholic liturgy and leave with dark smudges on our foreheads. My mom is the director of a preschool at a local...
by Mitch Randall | Feb 27, 2020 | Opinion
“Boys,” I asked my two sons a few years ago, “what are you giving up for Lent?” My youngest son quickly pounced. “Broccoli, I’m giving up broccoli for Lent.” He beamed, knowing he had just beaten the system of vegetable requirements at dinner. His older brother, who...
by Mandy McMichael | Feb 26, 2020 | Opinion
Pentecost is my favorite day of the Christian year. I love the red, the excitement, the passion, the Spirit. The solemn drama of Ash Wednesday is a close second. Ash Wednesday inspires in ways impossible to describe. I recognize the oddity of prizing a day of great...
by Joe LaGuardia | Mar 1, 2017 | Opinion
Baptists don’t celebrate Ash Wednesday. That was the reason given to me a few years ago by a local Christian bookstore employee in explaining why they didn’t have any Ash Wednesday resources. I had stopped by the store looking for Ash Wednesday items for...
by Preston Clegg | Feb 25, 2015 | Opinion
I typically don’t think much about ashes except for Ash Wednesday. Last week, I participated in a strange, ancient ritual in which I smeared some ashes in the shape of a cross on peoples’ foreheads and said something like, “Turn from your sins and...
