It's Ash Wednesday and before going to work today, I passed by Espiritu Santo Parish to be marked with ash.
I remember when I was a kid, we would tease each other on the size of the cross on our forehead. Some of the kids would hide it with their hair especially if they have large crosses. While some would take off some of the ashes to minimize the smear on their forehead. We never really understood the significance of Ash Wednesday when we were kids. We follow what our parents tell us to do so we do it. But of course, through the education we get from our Religion classes or the homily of the priests explaining the whole tradition of placing an ash on your forehead, then we became educated Catholics and learned to venerate the practice.