Today is Ash Wednesday – one of my favourite days of the church year. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent – the season of preparation for the Easter celebrations. Ash Wednesday is a quiet day, a day of drawing in, deepening our spirituality and looking inward; it is a day of doing soul work.
Today, here at BUC, we will offer two one-hour-periods of time when people can drop into the sanctuary to sit quietly and meditate and then receive the Imposition of Ashes (the smudge of ashes on forehead or hand. The ashes are the burned remains of last years Palm Sunday branches now dried and brittle. The mark of the Ash reminds us that though our best intentions may fail, God invites us to begin again and to use the ashes of our lives to bring us new opportunity and hope.) and Communion. We also have the labyrinth laid down in the auditorium so that a person can meditate while walking that circular path to the centre.
Both these opportunities, meditating in the sanctuary and walking the labyrinth, are done in silence. Our culture doesn’t offer a lot of silence. We tend to think if there isn’t sound or noise then nothing is happening or there is something wrong! Ash Wednesday offers the gift of silence. Enjoy your day … quietly!
