By: aj

In reply to aj.

my feelings progressed something like

-“gritty, scandalous hope” HELL YES

-QUEER CHRISTIANS ARE HERE

-“glitter ashes will be a powerful reminder of St. Augustine’s teaching that we cannot despair” + in the buzzfeed article I originally saw “The glitter will be a sign of our hope, which does not despair.” Which….ash wednesday is not about despair. remembering mortality and doing penance, yes, but those are inherently hopeful things, I think, at least from a Christian (Catholic) perspective? Death is not the end and we do penance because there’s something better. The other thing they say at my church sometimes, besides “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” is “Repent from sin and return to the Gospel.” So there’s always, always a message of hope, never of despair.

-So if the glitter ashes were framed that way, like less as contrasting with the ashes? Like reminders of other traditions and multiple ways of embracing mortality and turning to joy rather than sin, possibly? With the double whammy of saying queerness is holy and here and part of how we rise, not how we fall. I might be less conflicted.

-But also, I think because ashes are a symbol of penance and something we rise from, rather than rise to, I’m less down with combining the glitter there, because I don’t need any more reminding that people think being queer is part of my sinful nature rather than part of how I glimpse divine joy in my life.

You know what I would %100 be here for though? Glitter Easter candle. Scandalous glittery redemption.

(I’m overthinking it but this is what too much Catholicism will do for you, because everything is symbolic on multiple levels and I can never let well enough alone.)