I'll never forget Ash Wednesday as long as I live. Not for it being the start of Lent (my apologies to the Pope) but for the mass I attended with a handful of my college friends many years ago. If any of them kept blogs, I can almost guarantee they would be blogging about this very event. Have you ever had one of those moments of uncontrollable laughter in a place that you are very aware you should most definitely NOT be laughing? Maybe a Catholic church Service? Yup.
That happened to us at Ash Wednesday service in River Falls, WI. My unsuspecting roommate Megan simply followed the rest of us in line to make the homage to the front of the church to get her forehead crossed with ashes. What she wasn't aware of (obviously because she couldn't see her own forehead) was the massive amount of ash that was crossed on her head. When we all got back to the pew and noticed that she had so much ash that she had little bits of dust on her nose, we started laughing and could not hold it in. We kicked the floor, we looked away, we turned red in the face, but we just couldn't hold it in. If there would have been nuns around us they most certainly would have slapped us. Hands down, that memory will follow me to my grave. I hope that something so funny (but hopefully not inappropriate) happens at my funeral that causes some one or some group of people to try and hold their laughter in. I will most likely be looking down from above able to laugh out loud and not get dirty looks from those around me.
Big shout of HURRAY for me as I am exempt from Lenten practices for the year! Yeah for being pregnant! Bring on the beef and chicken on Fridays! (For all of you wondering, I did not call the Pope for the answer, I simply asked Gary and his answer is as good as God's. Word to Gary.) Happy Lent and may the next 40 days (of sacrifice) go by quickly because the pot of gold at the end of this experience is (aside from death and rising of Jesus) my husband comes home for another visit!
1 comment:
I will never forget that moment in that Catholic church either. Gosh, it seems like we had a lot of those hold in laughter until you cry moments together in college. I was just reminiscing to my co-workers about the time that you, Megan, and I walked through that blizzard in thigh high snow for our stupid gym class. I was laughing so hard that time that I almost peed my pants.
Post a Comment