Here’s a blessing for Ash Wednesday from Jan L.
Richardson. It comes from The Painted Prayerbook.
A Blessing 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
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—
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial—
Did
you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
This
is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.
we freely say
we are scorched.
This
is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.
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.
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
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.
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.
~ written by Jan L. Richardson, and posted on The Painted Prayerbook. http://paintedprayerbook.com/
