Ash Wednesday Lenten Post

This begins my Lenten prayer and reflection blog series.
It may get interspersed with other blog entries but I will give it captions with a title of “Lenten post” We begin on Ash Wednesday, Feb 6.

My goal is to have something brief, usually posted for each day of Lent. I know of some days when I will be away for a meeting and will post a few days in row. The posting might be a scripture, a prayer, a quote, a question, an image or an observation.
Come and see.
I encourage you to share this resource with others.

Amma Syncletica said: In the beginning there is struggle and a lot of work for those who come near to God. But after that there is indescribable joy. It is just like building a fire: at first it is smoky and your eyes water, but later you get the desired result. Thus we ought to light the divine fire in ourselves with tears and effort.


I make the ashes for the worship service by burning some of the old dry Palm Sunday palm leaves, and charred wood from a fire place, or bits of paper and twigs...and I do this every year in an old cast iron kettle that has accumulated ashes for at least 20 years. When I make the ashes, I have to make a fire, and I get some of the smoke in the process. So I recall these words from one of the desert mothers. And I think of the times I have bent down to blow on the start of a fire and felt the sting in my eyes and know the effort, but also the joy when the flame begins to burn clean and bright.
Begin with the ashes,
my own inner ashes,
as evidence that there is the possibility of fire.
Ashes are proof that fire exists!
It has been here before....

The picture at the top was in the Brainerd Dispatch about three years ago as I am smudging my daughter, Sara, at a worship service at the Congregational Church.