Should you wear Ashes openly at your work place?

Catholic Living
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For context I work in a industrial setting, as a traveling electrical technician installing and repairing our machines.

There is a 12pm non-mass service with distribution of the ashes and then there is a 6pm Mass with no distribution of the ashes. I had been feeling the urge to attend the 12pm non-mass and receive ashes, I haven’t received them in so long, maybe since I was a young teenager.

My concern is my work place, I am unsure if the reactions I will get will be negative. (I work mainly with eastern Germans who are predominantly atheist)

On top of this I am also unsure if this will be too “outwardly” as I know in my self I have not been the best person to myself and thought this would be hypocritical of me to be wearing the ashes openly?…not sure if this is a valid sentiment.

My question is simply what would yall do?

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Well, coming from someone whose very bold about what it is I believe in, just do it! Who cares if they’re Atheist or not, just do it. And if someone asks, you can just tell them it’s a religious thing, you don’t have to go into great detail if you don’t want to. I would do it honestly….who cares what you believe in? Most people shouldn’t give a dang about what you believe in, it’s just another way to divide people.

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Welcome to the forum! We should never be ashamed of our faith in Jesus Christ. It think it depends on each person and why they are choosing to, or choosing not to, wear our ashes publicly.

Are you doing it out of pride? Then maybe sporting the ashes is not suggested.

Are you not publicly wearing ashes out of shame or fear? Then maybe you should keep it visible.

Here is a story about a time when I decided to wear the ashes publicly. It could be the witness someone else needed in their life.

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I’m glad you changed the question from what someone should do (I don’t know) to what I would do. I used to when I could, but for many years I had to leave for work too early to go to church first. Then, as I think I mentioned in another thread, I saw a Protestant minister giving ashes outside a Metro station. The first time I saw it, I didn’t even know that any Protestants had Lent. The next year, I got ashes there and wore them all day.

Then I worked at the National Guard Bureau for a few years, and some years we had a chaplain giving ashes at a noontime service. It was nice to go to church with coworkers, and a lot of people were walking around with ashes at work in the afternoon. And a captain I worked with, who even went to a Protestant church that observed Ash Wednesday (but forgot what day it was), saw someone with a mark on the forehead and thought it was a tattoo (against the rules). The captain was embarrassed to realize that the mark on the forehead was ashes.

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In the practice of receiving ashes, we are acknowledging human mortality, lowliness & weakness (Genesis 3:19) AND that Jesus conquers death (Romans 6:8-10) & gives us strength (Psalm 118:14), Pray for those who don’t get it.

I also saw the following post from Matt Fradd and though I would share.

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I’ve thought about this over the years and I used to think it was probably okay for Catholics to leave it on but now I think letting it remain might be lip-service - declaring one’s faith instead of actively showing it. It depends on the social and political environment both local to yourself and wider proximity. If you are working in a friendly environment of warm people where showing one’s faith is almost encouraged then possibly but in one of dissonance or even neutrality I think maybe wiping it off before work is the done thing. The reason I have this change of view is because I think of the area in Scripture where we are told not to pray in the streets. To leave the ash on one’s forehead could equate to praying in public. If you were a friar or a sister then you could obviously let it remain for show because a friar is already in his habit regalia and so continuously in demonstration of his faith and a sister purposefully with a crucifix around her neck as a sign of her inner vow, i.e. who and what she is… while for everyone else, I would say that the ash should be considered private outside of filial company. Of course, this angle on the situation could extend to beyond Ash Wednesday and to the Walk of Witness but then if the ash is to be left on as a public witness then this should be declared by the Church as being the case and not left up to the individual and therefore if it hasn’t been then I would say wiping it off before going back to your job would be correct in many circumstances.

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We should not be ashamed of our faith in Jesus Christ, whether it is wearing the ashes or Praying before meals at a restaurant and making the sign of the Cross. You may never know who’s life may he touched by this witness.

I have shared this story before, but one night after attending Ash Wednesday Liturgy, my Wife Daughter, and I went to a local pizza restaurant for a cheese pizza, as we refrain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday.

While there, an older gentleman commented on what a nice family we have and then proceeded to tell is that he had not seen his Granddaughter in many years. She was about our Daughter’s age the last time he had seen her.

Our waiter saw our ashes and said that he is Catholic, but had not been to Church “in many years.” He said that he had thought about coming back. We invited him back and thanked him for sharing.

When we were finished, we asked him for our bill and he informed us that the older gentleman behind is payed for our meal.

I believe God touched the lives of many that night. We left with our hearts full and it wasn’t really anything we had done, but what the grace of God did through us and the witness of our ashes.

I will share one more story with you. In 2001, I had just started a new job. On day two, the Trade Towers were struck by two planes!

The Boss asked if anyone would like to gather in the parking lot and Pray for our Country that was presumably under attack.

There were about 14 of us and I thought, Wow! Look at all these Christians that I might never have known were Christian!

There is more to this story, but I will just say that it was the start of my journey back to the Catholic Church.