Thursday 31 January 2013

Ash Wednesday draws near

A Professor friend who spent many years at one of Wales' leading Universities relayed this Ash Wednesday story to me over the phone yesterday.


We were talking about attending Mass and receiving the ashes on 13th February when he remembered an occasion when he was giving a lecture to some 150 students.

It was Ash Wednesday and, he planned to cut the lecture short so that he could attend Mass and receive the ashes.

He gave the students some study work and then explained that, as it was Ash Wednesday, he was departing early to follow the custom of good Catholics everywhere and receive the ashes of Protestants who had been burnt at the stake.

Stunned silence.

Sometimes the Catholic sense of humour can be a little dark, but I like that.

4 comments:

  1. I would say heretics, because Protestants and heretics are basically the same, but "heretics" would be less harmful to ecumenical relations :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, please, Richard, don't be such an ash.


    :)

    - Mack in Texas

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nick, basically the same? They are the same whichever way one turns it.

    Mack, I have been trying to come up with an awful pun to match yours and I've failed!

    ReplyDelete