Today was Ash Wednesday for those of you using the Western Liturgical calendar. It is the beginning of the Lenten season, a season where Christians around the world fast in order to prepare themselves spiritually for the glory that is Easter.
And while it's normally just us liturgical Christians (Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, etc) who do Ash Wednesday services, in recent years I've seen quite a few Protestant churches joining in. I've seen Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists having services for Ash Wednesday.
I think it's a wonderful practice myself. And I thought I would share something from one of my favourite religious blogs here.
So here, courtesy of The Anchoress Online, is a snippet of her thoughts on Ash Wednesday.
And while it's normally just us liturgical Christians (Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, etc) who do Ash Wednesday services, in recent years I've seen quite a few Protestant churches joining in. I've seen Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists having services for Ash Wednesday.
I think it's a wonderful practice myself. And I thought I would share something from one of my favourite religious blogs here.
So here, courtesy of The Anchoress Online, is a snippet of her thoughts on Ash Wednesday.
We dare, today, to make ourselves openly vulnerable to both God and Man; Christ claimed us for himself at baptism, and today we proclaim him outwardly, unambiguously, and there is something about those ashes; they are both primal and counter-cultural:
As Christians, we are called to declare ourselves for Christ, but in life, in the day to day, we are seldom in a position to do it. It’s not something easily worked into most conversations, you can’t really carry on about Jesus while you’re in an engineering meeting, and if we try to proclaim Christ “by our actions”, well…that can be easily misinterpreted from “that kid is a nice kid because he loves Christ” to “that kid is a nice kid because he is a boy scout, or because his parents raised him well…”
With ashes, there is no room for misinterpretation. There are no “maybes.” This person stands before you, declaring himself or herself as belonging to Christ. Maybe not the best person in the world. May there is a struggle going on. We are all faulty humans, and none are perfect save Christ…but you look up from stirring your Starbucks coffee and you see someone wearing a big, black ashy cross on their forehead, and you know. The world knows. Another one for Christ. And another…and this kid over here – the big, brawny kid, with the great smile and the pleasant manner…he belongs to Christ, too. And another. And another…
With ashes, there is no room for misinterpretation. There are no “maybes.” This person stands before you, declaring himself or herself as belonging to Christ. Maybe not the best person in the world. May there is a struggle going on. We are all faulty humans, and none are perfect save Christ…but you look up from stirring your Starbucks coffee and you see someone wearing a big, black ashy cross on their forehead, and you know. The world knows. Another one for Christ. And another…and this kid over here – the big, brawny kid, with the great smile and the pleasant manner…he belongs to Christ, too. And another. And another…
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