Anselmina
Ship's barmaid
# 3032
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Posted
Like many physical rituals in the church, Ashing can have a number of different meanings to the participants, and potentially to others in the vicinity.
If it isn't an evangelistic, proclamatory or devotionally useful thing for you, then it's obviously not going to form part of your devotional routine. If it is, then it is, however it might be perceived by others. In some places, the significance of the mark of ashing will vary from none-at-all to 'look at whose been to church today for the beginning of Lent'. With a good dose of 'wtf' and 'does he know his face is dirty' along the way. Again, so what?
And while it's not a wholly analogous example, just as one doesn't have to be dirty or hungry to undergo baptism or have communion, you don't have to be pale-skinned to get some other intrinsic value out of ashing.
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Posts: 10002 | From: Scotland the Brave | Registered: Jul 2002
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