Lingering ashes

Ash Wednesday

Let me hear of your loving-kindness in the morning,

for I put my trust in you;

show me the road that I must walk, for I lift up my soul to you.

Psalm 143:8

I enter into the morning, stepping onto the Lenten path and aware of a faint burnt smell lingering on my skin. Last night we stood around the flame of burning palms making ready today’s ashes. The glow and warmth of the flickering tongues of brightness gathered us, pulling us into one another, creating community and camaraderie around the fire.

The flames died, the people dispersed, leaving behind only ash and a shimmer of our presence.

Today those ashes will mark foreheads, carrying with them the dust of last year’s palms and the hands that held them in procession, the dust of months of prayers, the dust of faith.

Dust that was our beginning, dust that will be our end. Dust that has been made of holiness and will make holy even as it leaves its mark.