‘This is not about wearing your faith on your sleeve and it’s not about parading your Catholicism ... it is a very private thing’
‘This is not about wearing your faith on your sleeve and it’s not about parading your Catholicism . it is a very private thing’ Children from the Central Model School, Marlborough Street Dublin, at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral on Ash Wednesday to mark the first day of Lent.
‘This is not about wearing your faith on your sleeve and it’s not about parading your Catholicism ... it is a very private thing’ Children from the Central Model School, Marlborough Street Dublin, at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral on Ash Wednesday to mark the first day of Lent. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien“There was a time when we would have a queue out the door on Ash Wednesday. But I suppose we do have more people here today than we might on a normal Wednesday,” he concedes. He downplays any suggestion that those who had come into the church were there for any ostentatious purpose, adding he does not believe people have ashes on their forehead as a badge of Catholic honour.Trump says ‘golden age of America has only just begun’ in speech riddled with exaggerations and inaccuraciesNathan McDonnell’s carry-on-as-normal behaviour suggested a profound dissociation from the €32m of crystal meth in his yard “This is not about wearing your faith on your sleeve and it’s not about parading your Catholicism. In fact, it is quite the opposite – it is a very private thing,” he says. Michael Leaden from Ballyfermot at St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin on Ash Wednesday. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Deacon Tom Groves and Fr Lorcan O'Brien distribute blessed ashes at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin on Ash Wednesday. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien As people aged from eight to 80, from countries worldwide, settle into the pews, some seem happier with the Lenten marking on their foreheads – traditionally a sign of repentance – than others. The happiest are also keen to wear their faith, if not on their sleeves as Fr McDermott says, then certainly on their heads. They are the children from the Central Model School on Marlborough Street, across from the church, eager to compare crosses as they traipse giggling from the altar back to their seats. The two priests administering the ashes have very different styles, with one making a clear and large sign of the cross on each forehead and the other content with a smudge. The children who end up with smudges look distinctly crestfallen when sitting beside those with big crosses. They are not, however, as crestfallen as the few latecomers who arrive in the church just as communion starts in the mistaken belief that the ashes would be among the last things to be dispensed on the day. Aby Paul Sebastian at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin today on Ash Wednesday to mark the first day of Lent. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Eight–year–old Dakota Hopkins from the Central Model School, Marlborough Street Dublin, also at the Pro Cathedral today. She was part of a group of children who will soon be making their First Holy Communion. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien A couple leaves with foreheads bare and are further disgruntled when they realise the holy water font outside the church is dry. Standing outside the church are two members of the Legion of Mary in full recruiting mode, delighted with the dry morning and how easy their job appears to be. The two men hand out miraculous medals as part of what one, Iain Bennett, describes as a new initiative for the legion. “It is much easier for us this way,” he notes with a smile. “Sure aren’t they all marked men and women here? They’re very easy to identify.” Eight–year–old Maciej Wasik from the Central Model School in Marlborough Street, Dublin, at the Pro Cathedral receiving ashes to mark the first day of Lent. Photograph: Bryan O’BrienWhile those coming out of the church have the thick black ashes glistening in spring sunshine, his has faded almost completely, having been applied in his local church at 8.30am. The ashes may have faded with time but his faith has deepened, he says. And after going “through a valley in my 20s and 30s” he returned to Catholicism in his 50s.“I had to come in,” she says. “Sure isn’t it the way we were all brought up,” she adds, before declining to give her full name as “my kids will kill me”. Siblings Chris Shannon and Bernadette Sexton at the Pro Cathedral in Dublin today; they would 'never miss' this day. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien Bernadette Sexton from Clare has no problem sharing her full name and demonstrates the mark of her faith proudly on her forehead.“I’d never miss this,” he says. “Sure without that, without our faith, what would we be but dust, just pieces of dust?”International protection system records death of 14 asylum seekers last yearWoman avoids penalty points for second time through 24-hour driving disqualification Nathan McDonnell’s carry-on-as-normal behaviour suggested a profound dissociation from the €32m of crystal meth in his yardBoy with autism unable to attend school due to Minister’s alleged failure to provide transportTroy Parrott credits Tottenham with helping him ‘become the person and player I am now’
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