Today is Ash Wednesday. Leave it to Aardvark Alley to come up with a great post on this and the Lenten season. I was able to attend a truncated service this morning before I left for an out of town excursion. The Pastor even did a little chanting! He does pretty good at chanting but prefers to only do in a small group setting. So we chanted the introit for Ash Wednesday and then the vicar performed the imposition of ashes.
The ashes are supposed to come from the burning of last year's palm crosses. As the pastor or vicar makes the sign of the cross on the forehead he reminds us of our mortality by announcing "From dust thou art and dust shalt thou return".
I've already had one family member say that we Lutherans are "just like the Catholics." because of my church's practice of imposition of ashes. I did try to explain that yes, we are catholic, as long as there is a small case c on the front of catholic. Said family member then responded with"see, see, you are Catholic!" Anything resembling the ancient Church or involving liturgy is frowned upon by my family. And to be honest, I'll take the insult as a compliment. While I could never go to Rome, or to the east for that matter, at least Rome has the sacraments.
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