And so it begins. The holy season of Lent.
On Ash Wednesday, all day long, I will place ashes in the sign of the cross on people’s foreheads, and say the words: Remember that you are dust. To dust you shall return.
This may be the most spiritually and emotionally exhausting day of my year. All day long, with people whom I love dearly, together we will remember that we will all die.
It feels as if I am doing 200 or so little burial services today.
Today I recall the foreheads, those I have smudged with ashes on past Ash Wednesdays, of people I love who are now resurrected from the dust.
Dick. Jamie. Pat. Andy. Bill. Mark. George+. Lin. Marilyn. So many more.
I will walk these forty days of Lent with the words of St. Benedict in my heart:
Keep death ever before me.
And
Always. We begin again.
With generosity. Reflecting on and tweaking my spiritual practices in order that I will be able to live more fully the days that God has given me.
Where will God lead these forty days?
House of Grace 