Ash Wednesday

John August Swanson's Entombment
Used with permission.

Today is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent—40 days of reflection before Easter. The text associated with this day is Joel 2:12–13: "Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity."

Lent is a season during which we take inventory of our lives and assess the condition of our souls. In some Christian traditions, people receive ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday. More than forty passages in the Bible associate ashes with mourning and grief. But more significantly, Adam was made from dust, and to dust all humans shall return. The dust reminds us of our mortality and of the fleeting nature of this life.