Ash Wednesday Reflections

The sacredness of receiving the ashes

Yesterday, Wednesday, February 22nd, was what many believers in the faith know as Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the liturgical, 40-day, season of Lent, beginning February 22nd and ending on Easter Sunday, which happens to land on April 9th this year. Ash Wednesday invites us to remember and honor our mortality and to acknowledge that God is ultimately the One Who holds our lives together in His able hands.

I wasn’t raised in a church that followed the liturgical seasons, so Ash Wednesday was just a day where I would occasionally see random people with smudges on their foreheads, not understanding — in my child’s mind — why they didn’t wash them off.

So yesterday, I decided to go to my first-ever Ash Wednesday service and receive on my forehead my own smudged, ashen cross and I cannot tell you in one letter how much I loved it.

I don’t usually post blogs toward the end of the week, especially not right before my weekly letter goes live on Fridays. But my written reflections from yesterday’s Ash Wednesday service are fresh and raw in my mind and I wanted to share them with you today.

I hope they bring you encouragement and hope as we enter into this Lenten season 🌿

Read it here: Reflections on the Sacredness of Ash Wednesday

Peace be with you,

Celia