Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Stamping the Faithful With Ashes

ROME, MARCH 29, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

In the wake of our March 15 column on using stamps to impose ashes on Ash Wednesday, a reader asked: "Your article states something about the priest washing his hands after distributing ashes. Does this mean that ashes are not supposed to be distributed by laymen assisting the priest? We usually have about four to six laypersons doing it along with him. I hope this is not illicit."

I used the rubric on washing the hands to underline that the minister should physically touch the ashes. The distribution of ashes is not reserved to the priest and deacons, and lay ministers may assist if required.

Another reader had asked about a practice in a German parish. He wrote: "Is it right to celebrate the Mass of Ash Wednesday on the First Sunday of Lent -- including the distribution of ashes -- as our priest does here? Since he began this three to four years ago many people no longer feel obliged to attend Mass on Ash Wednesday -- fasting and abstinence are no longer even remembered!"

Most Eastern Churches begin Lent ahead of the Roman rite on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and do not celebrate Ash Wednesday as such. It is not permissible, however, for a Latin-rite priest to transfer Ash Wednesday to the following Sunday. The Sundays of Lent cannot be substituted with any other liturgy, not even for a solemnity such as the Annunciation.

It is probable that the priest is motivated by a good intention such as facilitating the imposition of ashes to as many people as possible. At the same time, it must be remembered that receiving ashes at the beginning of Lent, whether within or outside Mass, is a highly commendable but not obligatory practice for Catholics. There is no need to transfer a rite which nobody is obliged to attend.

This practice can also have the undesirable effect mentioned by our reader of obscuring the Ash Wednesday fast and abstinence in the mind of the faithful and perhaps even weakening the overall sense of Lent as a penitential season.

I would therefore suggest to our correspondent that he approach either the priest, or if necessary the bishop, so that this practice is abandoned in the future.