My name is Amy Boss-Tennegar and today is February 17,
2021.
It is Ash Wednesday.
And whoever you are,
Wherever you are,
You are welcome here as we join together across the miles for a time of quiet reflection honoring the beginning of Lent.
Remind yourself that you are in God's presence.
Notice how God may be speaking to you in this time.
Let yourself dwell on any word or phrase that catches your attention or moves your heart and let your heart simply respond to God in prayer.
As we begin,
Please repeat these words,
Open my heart to you Lord and my mouth will declare your praise.
Take a minute to simply notice your breath.
Observe the shifting of breath and energy in your body.
Notice how God is breathing life into you at this very moment.
As God breathed life into the first human beings,
As the Spirit of God breathes life and energy into our souls,
You are right now in this moment receiving the gift of breath.
As you inhale,
Feel the energy of God lift you up and as you exhale,
Surrender to gravity grounded in your own vocation of service in this world.
Just rest in this space for a moment.
Observe your breath.
Offer your thoughts and feelings to God without trying to change or control anything.
So blessing the dust for ash Wednesday written by Jan Richardson.
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 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.
So Almighty God,
You have created us out of the dust of the earth.
Grant that this dust might be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence so that we may remember that only by your gracious gift are we given everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Savior.
And now may the almighty and merciful God who desires not the death of a sinner,
But that we turn from wickedness and live,
Accept our repentance,
Forgive our sins and restore us by the Holy Spirit to newness of life.
Amen.
Praise be to God who gives beauty for ashes,
Hope in the morning and strength for today.
Go in peace.
