Ash Wednesday

Not coming from a very traditional church background, I've never observed Ash Wednesday until today...

Following are a few excerpts from the service the girls and I attended:

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...


Since early days Christians have observed with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection and prepared for this by a season of penitence and fasting...by carefully keeping these days...take to heart the call to repentance and the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in faith and in devotion to our Lord.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word...

(Prayer before the sign of the cross is put on your forehead in ash)
God our Father, you create us from the dust of the earth: grant that these ashes may be for us a sign of our penitence and a symbol of our mortality; for it is by your grace alone that we receive eternal life in Jesus Christ our Savior.

(As the ashes are put on your forehead)
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.