Tag: Ash Wednesday
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Teach Us to Sit Still
Ash Wednesday, Part 2 Every year on Ash Wednesday, Guari and I read T. S. Eliot’s poem “Ash Wednesday” aloud. The poem brilliantly portrays the dual Lenten focus on repentance and acceptance of our mortality. It expresses a sense of dust and ashes, of hopelessness, of powerlessness to change. These feelings resonate with many people facing…
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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust
Ash Wednesday, Part 1 Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. In Christian tradition, on this day ashes are used to symbolize two things: repentance and mortality. In considering the destruction of the earth and the suffering of our fellow creatures, both human and nonhuman, repentance and humble acceptance of our own mortality seem…