Tag: Wednesday

Cleaning the mud off my boots after a recent flood response, I noticed the grittiness of it. It reminded me of preparing the ashes for Ash Wednesday. Burning last year’s celebratory palms, sieving them fine, mixing them with oil. I see the impermanence of things, of even life itself, in the mud and ashes. Ash Wednesday, a day when we acknowledge our mortality and our own return to dust. Mucking out after a flood, removing what was once treasure that has now become trash. Too often we overlook the physicality of the Christian faith in our anticipation of Heaven. We…

After perhaps a year or more of not gathering on-site for Ash Wednesday services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, worshiping communities across a large swath of the US are dealing with or expecting severe weather that would prevent gathering on-site. This solemn observance is a treasured one in the liturgical year, a day to be gathered with one another and to have the ashen cross marked on our forehead, reminding us of the dust from which we came and to where we will return.  Conversations on social media have begun, as fellow worship planners ask one another what they are…