This is not one of them, and I will without any second chances ban anyone who breaks that rule. If you choose not to worship, are not Christian, or have a grudge against specific faiths such as Catholicism, there are many forums online where you can debate or condemn. This post, and all of those you will encounter during Lent and Easter are meant to encourage us in our worship. And don’t forget the Knights of Columbus fish fry on Fridays! Usually for five or six bucks you’ll get a get supper and help the Knights raise money for their charitable causes. If your church has special services today or during Lent, please tell us about it, especially if visitors are welcome to participate. It helps me not just tread water spiritually, but make progress, and to more “live out” the life of Christ. I find this yearly journey helps me keep an eye on where I am going. After Pentecost comes the long stretch of what the Church call Ordinary Time before we start again with Advent. Soon after comes Lent, and we cast our eyes toward Holy Week, and the death, and Resurrection, and we again spend eight days, another Octave, celebrating Easter. We then celebrate Christmas for an Octave, and the season ends with Epiphany. Advent begins our new Church year, and we look forward to the birth of Jesus. I’m sure that is true of other denominations as well.Ĭatholics, and many other Protestant denominations follow a liturgical calendar, which I find to be of great aid to me daily and yearly in my attempt to follow Jesus. You do not have to be Catholic to attend the service or receive the ashes. If you are not a member of a church, or your particular church does not have any Ash Wednesday service, you are welcome to participate at any Catholic Church. Like Mary, we hope to find ourselves at the foot of the cross on Good Friday, still with our Savior, looking with a more hopeful and receptive heart toward the Resurrection. These practices are meant to help us prepare to meet Jesus on Easter Sunday, having walked these six weeks with him toward Calvary, fasting as he fasted in the desert, carrying our cross as he carried his, doing the will of the Father as Jesus taught us so well. We fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and we abstain from meat on Fridays as well, although many Catholics do not understand that we still have an obligation to fast on Fridays or substitute another penitential practice year round. Often we will choose to give up something, a sacrifice we offer to the Lord, but also something we use as a way to remind us to be more holy, more dependent on God. Lent is a time of penance, of choosing to look closely at our lives and invite the Holy Spirit in to help us clean house. Many other churches and people are choosing to observe the forty days (not including Sundays) before Easter. Many people associate the season of Lent with Catholicism, but that no longer holds true. Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land By admitting our own finitude we see God’s infinitude, confronting death brings us new life, knowing our limits gives us freedom, and through the mess of dust that we come to know the holy.Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep, What we keep at bay becomes the very thing our faith depends on. My prayer for us today comes from a poem by Jan Richardson called “Ash Wednesday: Blessing the Dust.”
God is God, and what’s more God loves and welcomes us without condition or exception. When we confess our human brokenness and finitude, there is a sense of relief and liberation that comes with knowing it is not all up to us. I find comfort in the transparency and honesty of day. There is no hiding behind veiled words or illusive concepts. In the act of receiving ashes, we are called to bare our whole selves to God - our beautiful, messy, sinful selves. In our heart of hearts, however, we know quite simply this isn’t true. Especially as we live in a culture that tells us if we maintain a strict diet, if we stockpile money, if we track our steps, if we master life… we can cheat death.
It is sobering to confront the prospect of one’s own morality. With our foreheads smeared with ashes, we are called upon to face our own mortality and failings.” The words allude to when God admonished Adam and Eve as they left paradise in the Book of Genesis.Īs HDS Professor Stephanie Paulsell says, “When we repeat (the words), we remember that we continue that journey into the vast, fallen world. For more than fifteen hundred years, Christians have used these words to mark the day as they dip their fingers into ash, and smudge bowed foreheads with the sign of the cross. Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent for many Christians. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
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