Having burned the palm fronds from last years Passion Sunday, we’re all set for this year’s Ash Wednesday.
Meanwhile, we pray for those who likely won’t have any Ash Wednesday Mass. In the Ukraine, the Orthodox are sending their priests down into bomb shelters. But – hey! – maybe they’ll be offering Holy Mass underground. We hope the bomb shelters won’t become their tombs, their catacombs, which, by the way, were cemeteries. Many in the Ukraine already bear ashes upon their heads, stuck on with blood:
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 