This latest incarnation of Tomas has been banned.

As an aside, ashes on the head is traditionally only done for CLERICS who have received tonsure.

Laymen traditionally receive ashes on the forehead. Why does the Novus Ordo Church have to change everything in our religion? Why don't they just leave the Catholic Church and be done with it?

On Ash Wednesday, the Novus Ordo Church in my area still gives ashes
on the forehead in the sign of the cross.
Not aware of these changes until I read this.

Thank you so much, Megan!

   May God bless you.

So Pedro is at it again.....

This is more a case of, once again, the modern church being embarrassed by yet another practice that is distinctive to Catholics, although I know that some Episcopals and Anglicans also do it.

When I show up at work with ashes on my forehead, it distinctly marks me, predominantly as a Catholic for my colleagues to see.  I am embarrassed to say that it usually makes me feel courageous, if you can understand that.

Of course, ashes on the top of the head is much more comfortable as it leaves no trace to be embarrassed by and misses the opportunity to declare a small mark of our faith.

The problem is when people who are very provincial just assume that the way things have been in their locality in living memory is the way things have always been, everywhere.  For instance, here's an old picture showing ashes sprinkled on top of the head in Europe:



And here's a picture of John Paul II receiving it the same way:



That's from a blog called RomanSacristan, where he observes:  "I prefer the way they do it in Italy. On Ash Wednesday when I received ashes at Saint Peter's Basilica, they just sprinkle the ashes on top of your head in the form of a cross. ... [W]here did the American forehead custom come from?"

And here are Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem also receiving ashes this way:



And here's a really old picture (c. 1370) called "The Putting On of Ashes":



Plus, here's a book from 1907 referring to "the Roman Catholic custom of sprinkling ashes on the head" (as current at that time), and here's a book from 1900 confirming that it was also the "ancient Roman Catholic custom."

Believe me, I couldn't possibly have less interest in defending whatever they do in Rome, but it's disappointing when people dismiss a longstanding, legitimate, and noble Catholic practice just because it wasn't done in their tiny neck of the woods 50 years ago, and so anything different must be an outlandish novelty presumably caused by embarrassment at being Catholic or a desire to destroy tradition.  I know it is nearly impossible to believe, but midcentury American Catholicism is not, in fact, the be-all and end-all of Catholicism.  In many countries, if they started putting ashes on the forehead, that would be destroying a tradition.

The problem is when people who are very provincial just assume that the way things have been in their locality in living memory is the way things have always been, everywhere.  For instance, here's an old picture showing ashes sprinkled on top of the head in Europe:



And here's a picture of John Paul II receiving it the same way:



That's from a blog called RomanSacristan, where he observes:  "I prefer the way they do it in Italy. On Ash Wednesday when I received ashes at Saint Peter's Basilica, they just sprinkle the ashes on top of your head in the form of a cross. ... [W]here did the American forehead custom come from?"

And here are Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem also receiving ashes this way:



And here's a really old picture (c. 1370) called "The Putting On of Ashes":



Plus, here's a book from 1907 referring to "the Roman Catholic custom of sprinkling ashes on the head" (as current at that time), and here's a book from 1900 confirming that it was also the "ancient Roman Catholic custom."

Believe me, I couldn't possibly have less interest in defending whatever they do in Rome, but it's disappointing when people dismiss a longstanding, legitimate, and noble Catholic practice just because it wasn't done in their tiny neck of the woods 50 years ago, and so anything different must be an outlandish novelty presumably caused by embarrassment at being Catholic or a desire to destroy tradition.  I know it is nearly impossible to believe, but midcentury American Catholicism is not, in fact, the be-all and end-all of Catholicism.  In many countries, if they started putting ashes on the forehead, that would be destroying a tradition.

This puts me in mind of how the modern church seeks to justify its modern novelties, like Communion in the hand, by saying they are just doing the way the early Christians did it.