We begin the season of Lent next week with Ash Wednesday. I grew up in a tradition (Roman Catholic) that commemorated Ash Wednesday with a special service where everyone was marked with ashes…quite literally. The ashes were made by burning the palm branches from the previous year’s Palm Sunday and then the ashes were mixed with oil so the priest could smudge the sign of the cross on our forehead. As he marked us with ashes he would say, “From dust you were formed and to dust you shall return” (from Genesis 3:19). There was something about that language that never quite sat well with me.
The Front Porch February 24, Issue 81
The neighborhood church with the big family feel.
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