‘Remember O Man that thou art dust
And unto dust shalt thou return’
There some moments which really need the old words. Ash Wednesday is one of them – my reflection as I sat in our Cathedral on Wednesday evening. They weren’t using the old words of course for the Imposition of Ashes. But that didn’t matter because I heard them anyway.
It was another of those moments at which something happens – there is some soul-stirring content to what is going on as forehead is marked with ash.
Clinically-minded soul that I am, I decided in the end that it was to do with proportionality. I was of course being asked to face my worm-ness. But also to see that all the push and shove, all the effort and rushing about, all the attempts to resolve the unresolvable ….. those things are important but they aren’t ‘the thing itself’. So strangely and unexpectedly there was an invitation to lay down some things and to focus on the main business.
And that was tough but welcome