Ash Wednesday

Blessings to all on a Holy and Prayerful Great Lent. Below are two reflections given by our Bishop, Tim Cravens (see full blog from list on side) and myself to one of our confirmation candidates who asked us what Lent really meant for us. I hope they provide some reflection for any who might need.

Timothy wrote, "One thing I always do is take Ash Wednesday off from work. I try to use the day as a day of reflection. The words that are traditionally used when ashes are placed on Christians' heads are "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return", and it is a day to reflect on our mortality, and where our life is going, in the knowledge that, sooner or later, it is going to end. It is easy to become so busy that we don't take the time to stop and think about the larger picture in our life (and being clergy, it is easy for me to even become too busy with church to do this!) , and Lent in general and Ash Wednesday in particular, gives us that opportunity to do that.

Often, funerals are a time when people, in the shock of grief, and realization that since life is short, they are not necessarily living as they wish they were. It might be helpful to think of Ash Wednesday as our own "funeral", where we come face to face with our mortality, mourn it, and come to terms with how it will affect our living. Of course, baptism is our "dying with Christ so that we might rise with Christ", and Lent was traditionally the time of preparation for baptism, ending in the Three Days when we celebrate Christ's death and resurrection. So as we contemplate our deaths on Ash Wednesday, we also look forward to the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ at Easter, which is a promise of our own resurrection."

I offered the following, " All of the outward things we do today: fasting, abstinence, prayer, ashes, are meant to help us focus on the fact that we are mortal, but God is not. Our lives and our futures are in God's hands and God has promised us greater joy and love than we can ever imagine.

Part of me hates today because I hate to think that I am not in total control. All the more reason for me to have today to discipline myself and remember from where my life comes and where it is going.

It is also a day to begin to think about ways to make peace with ourselves and others knowing all that God did to reconcile us to each other. Our gift at baptism of new life came at a great cost of love on the cross. Lent helps to remind me of that cost and how I am called to imitate it, if/when I am called to do so. Another reason I hate Lent...Italians are not good at reconciliation. We are better at getting even! Again, all the more reason I need this season!

A Holy Great Fast to all!