It’s an experience that any Catholic will understand. You decide that you’d like to stop by church on Ash Wednesday to get the obligatory ashes on your forehead and you get in line with everyone else who has had the same idea. While waiting, your mind begins to wander and you’re oblivious to all the people passing you by as they return from the altar. Eventually you get to be second or third in line and notice that the people just ahead of you are sporting ashes the size of billboards on their foreheads. Enormous, indeterminate blobs of soot now decorate their once spotless noggins as they return to their pews. Your heart begins to sink as you realize that you’re going to be forced to return to work with a gigantic advertisement on your forehead that essentially says “Interested in knowing more about Catholicism? Ask me!”
“Is the minister giving out ashes making a cross or signing his name on there?” you wonder in a panic. “His thumb must be the size of a 5 wood…is he blind?” you ask yourself. Before you know it you’re at the altar offering your own cranium as a canvas for this zealous finger painter.
Sound familiar? As part of Busted Halo’s Fast, Pray, Give Lenten Calendar we want you to show us your ash. Simply take a picture of your ashes and send us the jpeg at ashes@bustedhalo.com. We’ll post the best ones we receive and enter your name in our drawing for the “Ultimate Lent Incentive” grand prize that includes an Easter basket stocked with a brand new, customized iPod Nano as well as Busted Halo M&Ms, Swedish fish, a copy of The Green Bible and an assortment of other books from our Halo store.
Every day, starting Monday February 23, our Fast, Pray, Give Lenten Calendar will feature a new way to think about Lent, as well as new and practical ideas for how to approach the ancient Lenten spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving in ways that are actually relevant to your life.
Failure is not an option…
Worried about not following through again on what you’ve “given up” this Lent? Trust us, we’ve designed a plan for approaching Lent that actually makes sense and doesn’t involve giving up chocolate. Even more importantly, because we’ve designed our Lent calendar to feature a different set of interesting and very doable activities every day, you can’t fail. If you slip up one day you can just pick up again the next day with a new Fast, Pray, Give… you can even share any struggles you might be having at our “Slip Support Station” on BustedHalo’s Facebook page.
A little help…
Of course, everyone needs a little help or encouragement now and then, so in addition to our Facebook “Slip Support Station” we’ll be offering “Lent Incentives” each day beginning February 23. Every day we’ll give readers the chance to enter a random drawing to win one of the several different “Lent Incentives,” we’re offering, including: a copy of The Green Bible; a tin can of Busted Halo M&M’s; the March issue of Magnificat with the Lenten Companion; a bag of Busted Halo Swedish Fish; and a copy of The Sacred Art of Fasting. Each entry will also make you eligible to win the “Ultimate Lent Incentive” mentioned above.
So…
Don’t forget to send us your ash shots by Monday March 2 (ashes@bustedhalo.com), and make sure to check back to our calendar every day—beginning February 23—for a new opportunity to Fast, Pray and Give this Lent.
