To be honest, the days leading up to lent are usually stressful as I'm never quite certain what to give up. Tuesday night, I made pancakes (with much help) and had friends over to share them! Quite lovely. Wednesday, I decided to go to an Ashe Wednesday service at the Catholic Student Union. As I walked to the service, the Lord laid it on my heart to fast one day a week for lent.
Entering, I was a bit nervous as I had never been to a Catholic service before. However, the ceremony itself reminded me much of the Anglican church in Chapel Hill. I was a bit apprehensive about the Scripture readings and message from the priest (I think I get very apprehensive when it comes to church!), but I was pleasantly suprised. We read from Job and Isaiah, lovely passages that talked about returning to the Lord. The priest spoke about pride and how it gets in the way of seeing God, which coincided too well with what the Lord had just impressed upon my heart about fasting.
I entered in line to received ashes on my forehead, and as the priest mashed his thumb into the dish, and rubbed my forehead, he said in a deliberate Irish (not Northern Irish) accent: "Remember you are but dust, and to dust you shall return." A strange excitement took me over and I couldn't help but smile as I turned away, a strange excitement that has happened before in Ashe Wednesday services. Something so beautiful about communion and ashes and dust and breathe and entering into a season of purgation in order to focus rightly on my God.
Last year, Corban dragged me to an Ashe Wednesday service on the eve of the Duke v. UNC basketball game. A small ebenezer. :)
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