Ash Wednesday*

Today is "...the seventh Wednesday before Easter Sunday...the first day of the Season of Lent. Its name comes from the ancient practice of placing ashes on worshippers’ heads or foreheads as a sign of humility before God, a symbol of mourning and sorrow at the death that sin brings into the world. It not only prefigures the mourning at the death of Jesus, but also places the worshipper in a position to realize the consequences of sin. (See Reflections on Ash Wednesday). Ash Wednesday is a somber day of reflection on what needs to change in our lives if we are to be fully Christian. "

"In the early church, ashes were not offered to everyone but were only used to mark the forehead of worshippers who had made public confession of sin and sought to be restored to the fellowship of the community at the Easter celebration. However, over the years others began to show their humility and identification with the penitents by asking that they, too, be marked as sinners. Finally, the imposition of ashes was extended to the whole congregation in services similar to those that are now observed in many Christian churches on Ash Wednesday. Ashes became symbolic of that attitude of penitence reflected in the Lord’s prayer: “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11:4, NRSV)."


*Once again, thanks to Dennis Bratcher, the same source I turned to at Advent.

Blessings for Advent

"This is an Advent symbol of Jesus from Rev 1:8 and 22:13: "I am the Alpha and the Omega [the first and the last, the beginning and the end]" says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (see also Isaiah 44:6). The first symbol is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, and the second is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega.

Not only does this symbolize the One who has come and will come again, it also emphasizes the continuity of God's work in history throughout both the Old and New Testaments."

Credit for this information: The Season of Advent: Anticipation and Hope by Dennis Bratcher.

What the World Needs Now...

I am listening to CBC's "Canada Live", which will be featuring the

80-year-old Burt Bacharach later tonight.

In her intro to the program, the announcer said, "What's old is new again". I beg to differ. I say, "What's 'old' is never really 'old'."

Let's face it:

"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God's word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, 'Jump', and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what i do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always 'me first',

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies."

- 1 Corinthians 13: 1-8 - Eugene H. Peterson, The Message

Yep. "What the world needs now..."