18th February. Ash Wednesday

Transience.
Ash Wednesday could hardly make more visible and tangible the transience of things and our mortality. We start Lent in humility, close to the ground, close to our earthiness: remember you are dust and to dust you shall return. But we do not gather on Ash Wednesday just to commemorate the transience of creation. The ashes used this Wednesday are the residue of last year’s Passion Sunday palms…