Ash Wednesday!

Why do people wear ashes on their foreheads or hands on Ash Wednesday?

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Lent.  Lent is the 40 days (not counting Sundays) that lead up to Easter.  The season of Lent is a time for deepening our connection with God.  It’s a time when we think about the type of person we want to be and how we want to live in the world.  For many, Lent is a time of simplification. 

When we strip away excess from our lives, we’re able to see more clearly what’s important. 

In the book of Genesis (in the Hebrew Bible) Chapter 3, verse 19 it says, “You were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”  On Ash Wednesday we use this scripture as a sort of mantra to remind us of our connection with all of God’s creation.  If we remember nothing else during the season of Lent, we should remember our connection with the divine in everything that surrounds us.

When we place ashes in a cross on our foreheads or on our hands, we’re physically reminded of our mortality, and this is a beautiful thing.  It puts everything else in life into perspective and allows us to more easily see and let go of that which might be holding us back from being all that we were created to be.

So, how do we get the "dust" for the Ash Wednesday service?

  

We use the palms from the Palm Sunday worship last year.  They're all dried out, so they burn very easily.  

 When the palm ashes have cooled down, I mix the ashes with oil to create a kind of paste.  During our Ash Wednesday worship service, when people come forward to receive their ashes, I dip my thumb into the paste and as I make the sign of the cross on their forehead or hand I say, "Remember mortal, from dust you came and to dust you shall return."

May you always remember these words of mortality, not just during Lent, but all the days of your journey on earth.