Tag: Ash Wednesday
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Giving Away Our Hearts – An Ash Wednesday Sermon on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Where we begin our Lenten journey is not as important as where it takes us. In the same way, what we give up, take on, or do for Lent are not as important as what those things do for us. Read more
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Treasuring Hunting for Lent – An Ash Wednesday Meditation
What should I do for Lent this year? What should I read or study or give up or take on? These are good questions, but they are not Jesus’ question. Jesus wants to know what we treasure. Jesus is getting to the heart of the matter—our hearts. Read more
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Yesterday’s Palms, Today’s Ashes – An Ash Wednesday Sermon on Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Several years ago someone said to me, “One day I finally realized people were not spending nearly the amount of time thinking about me as I was spending thinking about them thinking about me, and wondering what they saw when they looked at me, what they said about me, and what they Read more
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I Don’t Want To Do Lent This Year
As I write this reflection it’s the third week in Epiphany and I’ve been thinking about Lent for a couple of weeks now. I am thinking about Shrove Tuesday; the pancake supper, the palms we will burn, and the ashes we will prepare for the next day’s liturgy. I am thinking about the fragility of Read more
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Welcome to the Human Race – An Ash Wednesday Sermon, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
A couple of years ago I was talking with a women who is and has been for many years my therapist, counselor, mentor, and teacher all rolled into one. I told her that I worked really hard to always get it right, to have the answer, to always know what to do, to speak the Read more
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Taking Ourselves More Seriously than God – An Ash Wednesday Sermon, Mt. 6:1-6, 16-21
“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your father in heaven.” (Mt. 6:1-6, 16-21; Ash Wednesday) Don’t sound the trumpet when you give alms. Don’t pray standing on the street corner attracting attention to yourself. Don’t show off by your fasting. Read more
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Miserere mei, Deus
This setting is by the Italian Composer, Gregorio Allegri. It is based on Psalm 51 and was composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably in the 1630s. Psalm 51, Miserere mei, Deus (Have mercy on me, O God) , is one of the penitential psalms used in the Ash Wednesday Proper Liturgy of Read more
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Marked for Death, Destined for Life – A Sermon for Ash Wednesday
The collect and readings for today, Ash Wednesday, may be found here. Ash Wednesday makes us face a reality we tend to deny. It begins a conversation most would rather not have. That topic and conversation is about death, not the usual topic of our daily conversations I suspect. We really don’t talk much about Read more
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Ash Wednesday – Finding our Place in Death
At some level we all look for and try to create our place in life – a place where we belong, are accepted, liked, recognized, approved of, wanted, loved. To not find this place is in some way to face the reality of death, to be isolated and alone. And while we know death is Read more
Interrupting the Silence 