Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Date: February 14, 2024
From Series: "See No Stranger: Living in Revolutionary Love”
Ash Wednesday is the day in the Christian faith tradition that begins Lent, the season of facing the realities of our lives, embracing them for what they are, letting go of our brokenness and shame, and seeking wisdom and strength for living our life's journeys more faithfully & freely. The ashes are a visceral reminder to ourselves of the frailty or our humanity and the fragility of the gift of our lives. But a season like Lent appears not as a required time of shameful self-recrimination, but rather, as the gift of space for reflection which can lead to repentance (to turn away from what leads to inertia and death and towards all that leads to illumination and life). In other words, a chance to be set free from a pit of paranoia into a meadow of metanoia.
Questions for personal reflection over the Lenten season…
Where are you finding it most challenging to be honest with yourself?
What’s not working for you in your life?
What feels broken in your Heart/Spirit/Self? Where are you hurting/suffering?
What mask are you feeling required to wear for others? To yourself?
What are you holding onto and hiding behind?
What truth do you sense you are needing to own and face in your life?
There’s not only space in this season to reflect. There’s GRACE in this season to be renewed. So be gentle with your Self…take one day, one moment, one breath at a time…and in the stillness and simplicity, see what emerges in the days ahead…Remember that you are dust…and you are Stardust.
