Ash Wednesday 2021: ‘Everything is so new this year’

“Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her long-sleeved garment which was on her; and she put her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went.” 2 Samuel 13:19.

The notion of sprinkling ashes on one’s head and tearing one’s garments goes back to Biblical times; they signify great sorrow and shame.

In the early days of the Christian church, people showed sorrow for their sins by wearing sackcloth and ashes. Sometimes they sat in ashes, too.

This year, some churches, including churches in the Diocese of Joliet, are hearkening back to ancient traditions with a no-contact way of observing Ash Wednesday. This is the first day of Lent in many Western Christian churches and it’s typically a day of solemn penitence.

Judy Halsne, office manager, at St. Joseph Church in Joliet, said the church offered Mass at 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Ash Wednesday, along a special distribution of ashes at 12:15 p.m.

For most Roman Catholics, the experience of receiving the ashes looks like this: they form a line to the front of the church, where the priest makes the sign of the cross on their foreheads with the ashes.

These ashes are typically made from palm branches from the previous Palm Sunday.

The ritual will look nearly the same this year – except people will stand 6 feet apart and the priest will sprinkle the ashes on their heads.

Last year’s shutdown happened during Lent last year and people celebrated Easter only virtually. So Ash Wednesday 2021, even with mitigations, came with a sense of thankfulness.

“We’re just grateful to be able to gather,” Halsne said. “We have to follow these guidelines, but we are still able to get together.”

St. Joseph also traditionally holds two fish fries during this season, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

St. Joseph did hold its Ash Wednesday fish fry at St. Joe’s Park in Joliet — as a drive-thru.

But that’s OK, too.

“It’s nice to initiate some normalcy,” Halsne said. “Even if it does look different than in years past.”

Plainfield Congregational Church United Church of Christ did one better: temporary ash tattoos in the shape of a cross.

Sharon Kuzel, office manager at Plainfield Congregational Church United Church of Christ, said, a traditional Ash Wednesday service at the church would involve mixing the ashes with oil and then applying them to the forehead or hand in the shape of a cross.

“Well, we can’t touch this year,” Kuzel said. “So what are we going to do?”

Kuzel said Ash Wednesday posed one more challenge in a year when the church has held virtual services and is transitioning into a new pastor. Also, the church needed to “err on the side of caution” when dealing with an older population in a pandemic.

So she knew a traditional Ash Wednesday service wasn’t possible.

“Everything is so new this year,” Kuzel said.

Then Kuzel learned about the tattoo idea during an online seminar. So she ordered some and then applied one on her hand to “make sure they work.”

She was pleasantly surprised.

“They’re good ones, not like the ones that barely go on,” she said.

Then Kuzel said the church added an extra, optional element to the Ash Wednesday drive-thru service: a food drive for the church’s micro pantry and for MorningStar Donation in Joliet.

“We’re a big supporter of MorningStar Mission,” Kuzel said. “And the need there is just going through the roof with all the layoffs and that kind of stuff.”

So the theme of the Ash Wednesday service will be “give a blessing, take a blessing,” she said.

“They can bless us with donations of food, and we can bless them with the communion elements and the traditional – non-traditional – Ash Wednesday service,” Kuzel said. “And then they can take it home and then each family can do their own service sitting around their table.”

Anyone, not just church members, was welcome to drive through the church’s carport to drop off food and pick up a “to-go” Ash Wednesday service.

“We practice open Communion. Everyone is welcome to come to the table,” Kuzel said. “And our pastor has already blessed the elements so we’re just going to have them in individual baggies, handing them out, and blessing from a distance of six feet.”

Kuzel also stressed that the food donation is optional, especially for people who are “really struggling.” So she left them with this message.

“Just please come anyway and receive a blessing,” she said.