I have long been dismayed that our Ash Wednesday services on campus do not involve the imposition of ashes, so much so that I called it Ashless Wednesday when I was a student.
This week, the chaplaincy informed me that I’m leading the Ash Wednesday service, which I’m happy to do. Since we actually have an Ash Wednesday service in the prayer book, I showed the service to my friend/brother Amos, and asked if we could use it. He agreed (!! be still my heart!!).
You have to remember that I live in paradise; we have palm trees all around. On Palm Sunday, the congregation brings their own palms, rather than the church providing them. However, they’re not saved for Ash Wednesday.
As you can see from the picture, we’re in the tail end of the dry season, and everything is brown and crunchy. I honestly don’t understand how anything survives. The palm trees are doing their usual molting, and it occurred to me… we can actually pull these dry fronds down and burn them for ashes!
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