Ash Wednesday single moos

Went to a grocery store yesterday evening and what do I see? A few folks are walking around with an ash marks on their foreheads. A little weird, but, whatever. Then, I saw several moos with those same marks on their foreheads. These moos had no rings on their hands and had a kid or 2 in tow. Here is what surprised me. If these moos are practicing Catholics, why are they having kids out of wedlock? Isn't that against all beliefs that Catholic Church stands for? Are people simply allowed to pick and choose? Are moos allowed to breed like dogs now?

I used to go to Ash Wednesdays when I was a kyd and have the ashes on my forehead for the entire day - like the rest of my famblee. Back then, it was normal to me because my famblee were all practising Catholics and it was just part of what we did.

ITA about the single moos with ashes on their heads though. Might as well be a big, scarlet H standing for 'Hypocrite'. The only time I can understand a single moo practising that religion is if they were once married and their husbands died. Otherwise, they're just poseurs.

In all honesty, my famblee were all poseurs too. Assholes towards each other in the car to church, singing hymns and then come back and act like assholes again. I'm an ex-Catholic now.

I stopped getting ashes and shit once I was outta Catholic school and went to college.

Lent brought out the dumb shit in my friends. I worked in retail. Now the older ladies believed and practiced that stuff hook line and sinker. But my 20 yr old friends would waste the entire hour of our lunch period traipsing me all over the mall or making me wait in a line a half block long to get cheese pizza because they didn’t want to eat meat on Fridays, but "god" forbid if they get something like French fries or a healthy salad. I was young and too naive at the time to tell them I was getting a gyro (no line during Lenten Fridays) and they could just meet me in the lunchroom (which they would never have time for after the cheese pizza line). They went through hell and high water to get their stupid cheese pizza then, 6 hours later, we would go out and drink our asses off and I'm sure they fucked their BFs du jour (I was and still am in a LTR). I just thought, once we were away from our parents and far from our Catholic school days that they would not do that dumb little shit but boy was I wrong.

This is when I realized that people will pick and choose, and they will just mindlessly follow the religion their parents picked for them. They won’t eat meat for Jesus (only on Fridays' during lent) which is relatively easy, but they certainly wouldn't give up something hard for Jesus like refraining from pre-marital sex, or drunkenness or lying, (or abortions). My same friend, 30 yrs. later, will LIE to me about going to mass on Sundays, just so she can sleep-in, instead of going out a little earlier in the morning to meet me for breakfast or something, like literally ONE time per year. She thinks, "well, that sounds like a good excuse and no one will question me going to mass, it’s like my right to be religious." I know she's lying and she thinks I'm stupid enough to fall for it. Finally I'll ask, did you make it to mass this morning....? Answer is always NO or I went Saturday night. Ironically, she has NO problem using her religion to LIE just to get 50 more mins of sleep once a year. Now she sleeps over at her BF's house every weekend as he lives like 2 hrs away, something tells me she never goes to mass anymore somehow.

I have tried to explain to her, you’re not going to get into heaven by eating cheese pizza during Lenten Fridays, and cheese pizza is not that much of a sacrifice for a man who allegedly died on a cross for your sins (that you willingly keep on committing) . It's not like she's living on bread and water. If anything that will get you into heaven is the refraining of sinning in the first place.

Now that I'm a full blown adult, I'm still shocked that some of the smartest people in my office will still get the ashes, and at 30-50 years old, will still eat cheese pizza during lent as a sacrifice for Mr Make Believe. And, force their kids to take Sunday school and all that fake shit.
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A little lent fasting etiquette bit...

If an RC priest is invited and accepts a dinner, and it falls on a meatless day, and the host makes a meat dish, the priest will eat the meat, as insulting a gracious host and the free meal is a bigger sin.

Who knew?

The Church is breederific. If you're a single moo, you go to confession, confess your sin of fornication and all is forgiven. Now you can receive communion, and be accepted in the community. If you're Catholic, but without spawn, then that is a bigger problem because you're considered selfish for not breeding. And, you're using birth control, a double whammy. i remember many years ago Pope John-Paul II publically condemn couples who were using natural family planning (NFP) to avoid breeding. Because some Catholic couples had NFP down to a science, they were staying CF, AND avoiding chemical birth control. The Pope was livid about this. I found it hilarious, and hypocritical that he would denounce people who applied NFP scientifically. They were using the only Church approved method, and used it very, very well.

Either I got lucky or I have missed out, but I grew up pretty much without religion. My parents never went to church and neither did I. Most of my friends never went to church either. Nobody was really an atheist but nobody was really religious. To us, church was for "those funny looking people, wearing weird clothing", because we were inner city kids from not so well to do neighborhood. A simple way to describe it was just nobody cared.

Now, the clown in me wanted to ask those moos if they have fallen into some dirt somewhere. Then, after I get bitched out, I wanted to ask her if fucking while not married is a thing to do now for Catholics because she is carrying a living proof of her actions. larious

Of course I would never say anything like that, but, it would be really funny. For me.

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mumofsixbirds
In all honesty, my famblee were all poseurs too. Assholes towards each other in the car to church, singing hymns and then come back and act like assholes again. I'm an ex-Catholic now.

I happen to think that practicing Catholics are poseurs in general. You can't claim to love children on one hand, breed a whole lot of them, and then turn around and financially support an organization that systematically molested at least tens of thousands of children, worldwide, and followed that up by obstructing justice from the highest of levels on down. It's not like these were a few isolated incidents, this was a worldwide conspiracy.

Let me add that this is the same criminal organization that advocates no birth control in places of the world suffering from massive starvation, is anti-abortion, anti-death-with-dignity, and turned a blind eye to the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler.

I'm sorry, but unless you're really old I don't see any good reason for a person to be a practicing Catholic, and I think it's time to call out the people who are.

Walking down the street and seeing people out and about with ashes on their foreheads, I was thinking, Are you fucking kidding me? If you're going to support the Pope & Company, why stop there? Go burn some crosses and join the Ku Klux Klan while you're at it.

What the hell is wrong with our society? When did it become okay to financially support an organization that practices and condones child molestation?

StudioFiftyFour, I totally agree with everything you've said.

I last got ashes on Ash Wednesday when I was 16. Haven't been a Catholic nor a Christian since.


Feels kind of good.......>

Last got ashes on Ash Wednesday when I was eight. My family moved outta the midwest at that point, and my parents kinda drop-kicked Catholicism then. They said they'd support us if we wanted to attend church (or whatever other religious facility) and drive us there, but they themselves weren't into it. I feel glad to be away from Catholicism. I could tell it seemed weird and old and out-of-step, even back then.

One thought for the OP: Other churches will sometimes do ashes, so maybe this single mom was Episcopalian/Anglican? Dunno.

ETA: as for picking and choosing...American Catholics have been doing that for a while now. Ever notice that a LOT of American Catholic couples limit their family size in one manner or another? My parents were still practicing Catholics when they had my sibs and me, and there's only three of us. Catholic person I knew in college has "only" four kids (quotes because it's still a big family by today's standards). American Catholics don't seem to take quite as many of their marching orders from the Pope.

Meh. I don't put too much stock in the presence of rings or not.
I don't wear mine if I am going to teach a clinical because I have to take them off, which is an invitation for them to get lost or stolen. Even my wedding band has diamond chips where nasty stuff can hide. I also don't like wearing them to the gym because it makes lifting weights uncomfortable so I usually leave them at home. I know I usually stop off for errands without going home to get my rings.
I always thought the ash thing was just a way for people to show off for the rest of the world. It is one thing to only go to church on special occasions if that suits but when people act like assholes most of the year it is hard to take the ash thing seriously. These are often the people who give up something dumb for Lent, like switching from regular Coke to diet when they were trying to lose weight.

Studiofiftyfour said everything I was gonna say already.

And quite frankly, I would imagine that to a catholic having an abortion and NOT suffering for having sex would have been the bigger sin.

Just for the record: Lutherans go to church and get the ash on their foreheads, too.

McHell's is running their yearly lent special on Fish Fillets. The drive through was stuffed full of repentant sinners suffering through a lunch of fried fish and French fries today...

(Edited for spelling)

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stillwaters
McHell's is running their yearly lent special on Fish Fillets. The drive through was stuffed full of repentant sinners suffering through a lunch of fried fish and French fries today...

(Edited for spelling)

That's comforting to know. Because God won't judge you for giving money to a child rape organization, but he'll be really upset if you eat a hamburger on a Friday. eyes2

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skyeyes
Just for the record: Lutherans go to church and get the ash on their foreheads, too.

Good to know. FWIW, I was in Connecticut for work this week when I saw it, so I'm quite sure they were Catholic and not Lutheran. (Still... why would anyone want to associate their religion with anything attached to the Catholics?) I'm all for free expression, but holy shit, why would any sane person under the age of 103 associate themselves with that group?

And if you're CF and still holding onto Catholicism because you were raised that way, like the ceremonies, or don't want to disappoint Grandma, I seriously encourage you to wake up to the fact that the people who belong to that organization have absolutely no respect for you, your wishes, your body, and you have nothing in common with them. For them, you are an outsider. Hey, I do give the church credit... they are completely truthful with their viewpoint--if you aren't married and breeding, you're selfish and worthless. So it's not like they're trying to fool anyone into joining.

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CBS Article on Pope's CF Message
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/02/12/married-and-dont-want-kids-pope-francis-says-your-selfish/

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evilchildlessbitch
I always thought the ash thing was just a way for people to show off for the rest of the world.

They are showing off. They're stating emphatically and categorically that they're proud to be anti-gay, anti-birth-control, anti-abortion, anti-death-with-dignity, anti-science, anti-environment, anti-sustainability, and pro-overpopulation.

They are on the wrong side of nearly every issue that matters to me along with being on the wrong side of history. And when I hear these morons say, "Well I don't really accept most church doctrine... but I am still proud to be Catholic!," I just can't figure it out. If you don't agree with the church, what's the fucking point? It's like disliking all of the players on the Yankees but still claiming to be a fan of the team. It makes no sense.

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skyeyes
Just for the record: Lutherans go to church and get the ash on their foreheads, too.

I was raised Lutheran and my church never did that.

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"Not every ejaculation deserves a name" - George Carlin

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Techie
Either I got lucky or I have missed out, but I grew up pretty much without religion. My parents never went to church and neither did I. Most of my friends never went to church either.

My parents sent us to church so they'd be able to sleep in on Sunday mornings in a quiet house. And heaven forfend (heh) if we used the excuse that they were asleep to skip out. Didn't even matter what denomination, just whatever church was closest to where we live. So, my siblings and I got a bit of teaching in Mormonism, Baptist, Presbyterian ... eyes2

As an example of how parents can be absolutely dreadful, putting religion over the welfare of their children, check out this c*nt.

A young woman, already in poor health, becomes pregnant. The father of the fetus also carries bad genes meaning a very strong likelihood that the kid would develop a disorder bringing about a short, harrowing life. Plus, they just can't afford another kid. The woman tells her father that she intends to abort the fetus and receives understanding and support. She tells her Catlick moo and the following occurs

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My mother kept asking over and over "how could you let this happen?" And I can only say so many times that he was wearing a condom and it came off when he was exiting and that I didn't do it on purpose before the words just stop meaning something. She actually said "how many chances do you think he's going to give you?" I'm assuming she meant god. She fucking knows that I'm not Catholic, that I'm not in any way religious so this question was just bullshit. And she starts crying her eyes out and actually asked me how I think it makes her feel that her daughter isn't going to go to Heaven with her. Are you fucking kidding me? Like this is in any way about her? I tried to explain to her that carrying to term would mean bad things for my health and she pretty much just kept talking about how I keep making all of these awful decisions in my life and begged me not to tell my dad because it would kill him. (which we now know she was totally wrong about) After all of that I ran to the bathroom to cry my face off. I just don't understand her. I would never ever make my daughter feel the way she made me feel today.

Gosh, Ma, this fetus is already wrecking her health; she doesn't want to bring a child into the world only to see it suffer a short, excruciating existence; they are barely getting by with the two they already have. And all you worry about is that you two won't go to heaven together? That's not a heaven I'd want to be in if it's filled with people like you.

Back in the 70s my dad was always a devout Catholic and when we were teens me and my sisters were allowed to go and get ashes by ourselves. We didn't like getting ashes from a mean, grouchy priest, so we gave ourselves ashes. One year it was from a barbecue grill and another time from the exhaust pipe of a Plymouth Volare. Later we just kept some Kingsford briquettes around, just to ash ourselves. So there are ways to get the ashes and not deal with the church.

Nothing worse than a hypocrite. I work with a woman who is an alleged "devout Catholic." She lives with her boyfriend, and they have a toddler. Meanwhile, she is also carrying on an affair with a married man. She is supposed to be getting married to her baby-daddy, and, lo and behold, the town priest told her that he didn't think he could marry her, since she was living in sin and already had proof of it (the toddler) Boy, was she pissed! How dare they not let her get married in the church, after she has publicly flouted all the rules? Don't they realize how much $$ she has spent on a big white dress?

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LoveToLurk

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skyeyes
Just for the record: Lutherans go to church and get the ash on their foreheads, too.

I was raised Lutheran and my church never did that.

Some synods do it, others don't. I don't remember what synod my mother's church was, because I'm an atheist who doesn't give a fuck about religious observance. I just know that during the last 7 years of my mother's life, when she lived with me, I had to schlep her to church every Ash Wednesday so she could get her ashes.

The Lutheran church in the US is composed of several synods, each with its own set of rules and positions on social issues. The more conservative ones do the Ash Wednesday ashes routine; the more liberal synods don't. K-Man's devout Lutheran aunt wears the ashes.

Weird. I grew up in an area with mostly German ancestry, and none of the churches in my area (mostly Lutheran and UCC) did the ashes. The first time I ever saw someone with them on was when I had a Catholic roommate in college. I had to ask her what was on her face.

My church did do the palm branches on Palm Sunday, though! Getting those branches was always the highlight of my young churchgoing life. They made a great prop for my Barbie pool.

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"Not every ejaculation deserves a name" - George Carlin

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randomcfchick

One thought for the OP: Other churches will sometimes do ashes, so maybe this single mom was Episcopalian/Anglican? Dunno.

I was raised United Methodist (an offshot of the Episcopalian denomination), and I know my grandmother's UMC branch does the ashes on the forehead. I went with her a couple of years ago - it was important to her that year, and I had lost quite a few extended family members the previous year, so I made an exception so I could spend time with her. I know that while the UMC branches I've been to here in Tex-Ass would rather someone be married before sprogging, they don't consider it a grave sin or anything.

If indeed she was Catholic, then I absolutely can imagine how she has had it pounded into her head that getting out of the punishment blessing of being a moo is a horrible sin. I think the RC church would rather have a sinning single moo (and future potential tithe payer) than a sinless CF person.

Also, like people said above, moo might not have been single. One of my cousins and her husband (who I found out more infuriating things about tonight) don't always wear their rings. He works in a factory and isn't allowed to wear it, so he tattooed it on. She just randomly doesn't wear it.

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live." - Oscar Wilde

My ex boyfriends foster brother lived with my exs parents on weekends with his wife and 3 kids (only the youngest was his, they had 3 different baby daddies first 2 were out of wedlock) she claims to be very religious, yet she was mad at my ex cuz he had condoms out in plain view (as the family slept in his room on the weekends), fucking hypocritical bitch

There is another thing that I have been noticing this weekend. A good number of pregnant women that are just barely starting to show it. These are probably the ones that were "busy" around X-Mas time. Looks to be a round of September "arrivals". No rings on those hands either, but, since there was no ash stamp on the forehead, I could not tell if they were of a particular religion or not.