“For you, as Ash Wednesday arrives.”

For you as Ash Wednesday arrives. May the ashes that will lead us into Lent be an invocation, an invitation. So many blessings to you, beloveds, as the new season unfolds.

THE WAY THAT ASHES KNOW
A Blessing for Ash Wednesday

So let the ashes come
as beginning
and not as end;
the first sign
but not the final.
Let them rest upon you
as invocation and invitation,
and then let them take you
the way that ashes know
to go.

May they mark you
with the memory of fire
and of the life
that came before the burning:
the life that rises and returns
and finds its way again.

See what shimmers
amid their darkness,
what endures
within their dust.

See how they draw us
toward the mystery
that will consume
but not destroy,
that will blossom
from the blazing,
that will scorch us
with its joy.

—Jan Richardson

Image: “Ash Wednesday Cross”
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