From the DOD for Spire 02-09-09: Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. It occurs 40 days before Easter (excluding Sundays). The observation of the liturgical year was new to me when I first came to this Church in the early 1990s and it intrigued me. Following the Christian year has made worship a much more profound experience for me. I’ll never forget the first time Mary and Lydia participated in our Ash Wednesday service. They were not too sure about whether they wanted to take the imposition of ashes. I had tried to prepare them for it, explaining that it was very important that they remain quiet especially at the close of the service when we received the ashes. Our turn to get up and go forward arrived. Mary was with me while Lydia was 2 or 3 people behind us with Ms. Audrey and their grandmother. She was still trying to decide if she wanted to do this. Aside from the hushed sound of people getting up and making their way through the line, the sanctuary was still. As we neared the front of the Church we could barely hear Pastor Roy as he placed ashes and said “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” During this somber moment, Mary turned to see Lydia in line and called out “Hey Lydia! Are you gonna get a cross on your noggin?” So much for somber… I recently read a sermon by a man named Jon M. Walton. In it he states “Ash Wednesday reminds us of two things, that we are dust and to dust we shall return… And the ashes remind us that we are fallen and we can’t get up on our own. We need God’s help. We need God’s forgiveness for our sin. And we need God’s love, like a mother who gathers her children to her to nurture and protect them. That is finally the hope that is scratched in the ash on our foreheads, that God’s love has reached all the way to earth, to the dust from which we have been made, and made of the dust the peace of heart and spirit that we seek. Made like with tender mercy and loving care just like that dust God took in hand to shape the first creatures, man and woman. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We may be dust, but dust that we are, we are loved... loved, made whole, and made new by the resurrection of Jesus who has shown us in his death and resurrection that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. That is the secret scratched in the ash and imposed on our foreheads. Nothing can separate us from God’s love.” Peace and Grace to you as we approach Lent, Rachel P.S. I found Jon Walton’s sermon here: http://www.fpcnyc.org/sermons/2004/pdfs/040225.pdf