P
Psalm89
Guest
“The cross, with which the ashes are traced upon us, is the sign of Christ’s victory over death. The words “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” are not to be taken as the quasi-form of a kind of “sacrament of death” (as if such a thing were possible). It might be good stoicism to receive a mere reminder of our condemation to die, but it is not Christianity.”
–Thomas Merton
A side note on the bulletin in the Ash Wednesday service tonight at my Lutheran church. It was a very solemn service.
Also:
“I wail and moan as I think of death, and see that our human splendor created in God’s image, now shapeless, uncomely and unattractive is laid in the grave. Oh, the secret of the mystery befalling me! How did we come to be handed down to the corruption? how did death become our partner?”
–Byzantine Vespers
And:
“Spare us, O Lord,
O spare us, thy people;
and let not they wrath be upon us forever.”
–Latin responsory
This wasn’t part of the liturgy, just in a side bar.
–Thomas Merton
A side note on the bulletin in the Ash Wednesday service tonight at my Lutheran church. It was a very solemn service.
Also:
“I wail and moan as I think of death, and see that our human splendor created in God’s image, now shapeless, uncomely and unattractive is laid in the grave. Oh, the secret of the mystery befalling me! How did we come to be handed down to the corruption? how did death become our partner?”
–Byzantine Vespers
And:
“Spare us, O Lord,
O spare us, thy people;
and let not they wrath be upon us forever.”
–Latin responsory
This wasn’t part of the liturgy, just in a side bar.