Ash Wednesday

Beloved of God, every year at the time of Easter, the Christian Passover, we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin this holy season of Lent by remembering our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We begin our journey to Easter on Ash Wednesday (February 26) with the sign of ashes, an ancient sign, speaking of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marking the penitence of the community as a whole. The sanctuary will be open from 6-8 AM, 12-1 PM and 5-7 PM for meditation and reflection and the imposition of ashes.

Blessing the Dust – A Blessing for Ash Wednesday— by Jan RIchardson

All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners

or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial –

did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?

This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.

This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.

This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

 Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation