Ash Wednesday Begins Our Community’s
Lenten Journey
One of the most powerful rituals in the
Episcopal Church is making the sign of the cross with ashes on one’s
forehead as part of the Ash Wednesday service. Elizabeth-Anne Vanek
succinctly captures the moment of that marking:
You thumbed grit into my furrowed brow, marking me with the sign of
mortality, the dust of last year’s palms. The cross you traced seared,
smudged skin, and I recalled other ashes etched into my heart by those who
loved too little or not at all.
With that marking we are invited “to the observance of a holy Lent,” a time
when God’s “faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy for
the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and
renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace
which you have prepared for those who love you” (BCP 265, 379).
Begin your Lenten journey by joining us at one of the three services that
will be offered on Ash Wednesday: 7:00 a.m. in the chapel, 12:05 p.m. in the
church and 7:00 p.m. in the church.
--Fr. Paul +
