A beautiful Ash Wednesday story from Msgr. James Shea:

A beautiful Ash Wednesday story from Msgr. James Shea:

"A couple of years ago, I was on a flight on Ash Wednesday, and the stewardess came back to me and knelt down in the aisle where I was sitting, and she began to cry.

She said, 'I wasn't able to go to mass today on Ash Wednesday because I'm working morning till night, Father. Would you happen to have any ashes?' I couldn't believe it.

I had a little vial of ashes in the overhead compartment up on top, and I'm not like Father Boy Scout, I'm not usually prepared in that way, but I had some ashes, and so I said yes, I do, and I took them down, and I imposed ashes upon her while she knelt there.

By the end of the flight, the two other stewardesses, one of the pilots, and more than half of the plane had followed her and had knelt down in the aisle to receive ashes. This is the hope with which we live, and it's latent in people, it only needs to be activated by our witness."

A beautiful #AshWednesday story from Msgr. James Shea:
"A couple of years ago, I was on a flight on Ash Wednesday, and the stewardess came back to me and knelt down in the aisle where I was sitting, and she began to cry.
She said, 'I wasn't able to go to mass today on Ash… pic.twitter.com/WhKRXiqzs3

— National Catholic Register (@NCRegister)March 5, 2025