Wednesday 17 February 2021

Ash Wednesday

Blessing the dust

for Ash Wednesday

 

All those days

you felt like dust,

like dirt,

as if all you had to do

was turn your face

toward the wind

and be scattered

to the four corners

 

or swept away

by the smallest breath

as insubstantial – 

 

did you not know 

what the Holy One 

can do with dust?

 

This is the day

we freely say

we are scorched.

 

This is the hour

we are marked 

by what has made it

through the burning.

 

This is the moment

we ask for the blessing

that lives within

the ancient ashes,

that makes its home

inside the soil of

this sacred earth.

 

So let us be marked 

not for sorrow.

And let us be marked

not for shame.

Let us be marked

not for false humility

or for thinking

we are less

than we are

 

but for claiming 

what God can do

within the dust,

within the dirt,

within the stuff

of which the world 

is made,

and the stars that blaze

in our bones

and the galaxies that

spiral

inside the smudge

we bear.

 

Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons