Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascensha Presents Ash Wednesday.

I'm sure that since today's Ash Wednesday, this right now is the season of Ash Wednesday

that you probably have heard a ton of people who say things like, you know, they're really

clever trying to get people to come to mass on Ash Wednesday so they say things like,

hey, get your ash to mass.

Ash is meant to sound like another word for butts.

It's an attempt to be like, let's kind of be hip and with it or whatever the thing,

word of the word, the kids using these days out on the playground, or you have the whole,

you know, out there on Instagram, I'm sure today is the hashtag, hashtag kind of a thing,

which is great, fine, awesome, fun.

And I love the fact that there's more and more Catholics who are kind of like, you know,

no, that's okay.

It's fine because I talk to so many people who are like, I hate Ash Wednesday, like I don't

wear, I don't like wearing those ashes on my forehead for a number of reasons.

Some people like, I don't like, you know, clogging my pores, I get nervous about this.

Others are like, you know, I go to the grocery store and someone has no idea what Ash Wednesday

is.

It's like, hey, you have some dirt on your face, which I always like to kind of like play

that off like really where I'm so sorry, what?

And it's like, no, on your forehead, I'm like, oh, it's Ash Wednesday.

So I understand there's some people who are uncomfortable about this or if people who

like celebrated, they love it because it's, you know, that's the HEC day, hardcore Catholic

...