Blogs

ASH WEDNESDAY – Ashes come from crosses

The first of a selection of items by myself and Marjorie Dobson for Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week and Easter to appear regularly over the coming weeks.

 Ashes come from crosses
  
 Ashes come from crosses, 
 symbolically palm-leafed 
 for joyful jubilation, 
 yet shaped 
 for betrayal and condemnation.
 Crosses carried last Lent 
 as emblems of enlightenment 
 and hand-held holiness, 
 now tired and tainted 
 by a year of faults
 and failing to follow 
 the sacrificial example 
 set by the crucified Christ.
  
 So ashes of symbols 
 become badges of repentance 
 to be warily worn, 
 not as a display of duty 
 to be proudly presented 
 as an outward sign 
 of hollow holiness, 
 but as a reminder of those times 
 when our hopes turn to ashes, 
 as our welcoming 
 of Christ’s kingdom 
 is overwhelmed 
 by the opinions of the crowd 
 and easily influenced 
 into denial and defeat.

 © Marjorie Dobson

Let us reach beyond the winter – a hymn for our time

 
  1 Let us reach beyond the winter
 through this dark, depressive gloom,
 may the light of Christ come shining
 into every shuttered room.
 
 2 May the sunshine of the spring time
 warm each frozen heart and mind,
 melting prejudice and anger
 by love faithful, strong and kind.
 
 3 Now profound anticipation
 wakens hope and offers grace,
 as we press, with God beside us,
 to the future we must face.
 
 4 God who shares our darkest moments,
 God of harmony and praise,
 lead us on until you greet us,
 God the goal of all our days.
 
 Andrew Pratt (born 1948)
 © 2004 Stainer & Bell Ltd
 8 7 8 7
 Tune: LOVE DIVINE (Stainer)
 
 Andrew Pratt
 Words © 2004 Stainer & Bell Ltd, London, England, http://www.stainer.co.uk.
 Please include any reproduction for local church use on your CCL Licence returns. All wider and any commercial use requires prior application to Stainer & Bell Ltd.