Busy Christian? Get your ashes to go
BROOKHAVEN >> Devout Catholics won’t need to leave the seat of their automobiles on Wednesday for ashes if they chose to roll through the United Methodist in Brookhaven.
Living life in the fast lane often leaves little time for parents and workers to find time to practice their faith, which is why this Wednesday the options are plentiful for people on the move.
Drive-thru ashes will be available from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the church parking lot at 600 Dutton Mill Road, where folks can just roll down their windows for an ashen cross on their forehead and a prayer.
Service inside will be held from noon until 1 p.m.
In recent years, a rector at Incarnation Holy Sacrament Episcopal Church, offered “Ashes to Go” for commuters at the trolley stop on Garrett Road and Shadeland Avenue in Drexel Hill.
“It allows us to reach people who don’t usually go to church on Ash Wednesday,” Father Benjamin Wallis of Holy Sacrament told the Daily Times in 2015. “In other cases, people don’t know or have forgotten it is Ash Wednesday and they appreciate that ashes are available to them.”
The beginning of Lent can start as early as Feb. 4 or as late as March 10. This year, Easter falls on April 16, which has bumped Ash Wednesday to the first day of March. Christ Church
In 2018, Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day will coincide on Feb. 14, leaving many practicing Catholics to make some difficult choices on which temptation to resist — will chocolate and abstinence get a pass next year?
The church continues find new ways to engage with the youth as less and less people are involved with organized religion as were generations prior. A Pew Research poll in 2015 found that just 16 percent of Catholics polled considered themselves as highly involved, while 70 percent said they have a medium level of involvement.
The advent of to-go ashes and drive thru services is largely intended for those in the majority who hold onto the basic values of Catholicism, but don’t have the time to practice with consistency.
Pope Francis released a statement for the 2017 Lenten season back in October, which told the story Lazarus, the rich man. The pope prayed for people to find inspiration in that it “provides a key to understanding what we need to do in order to attain true happiness and eternal life.
“Let us pray for one another so that, by sharing in the victory of Christ, we may open our doors to the weak and poor,” the pope’s statement concludes. “Then we will be able to experience and share to the full the joy of Easter.”