On Ash Wednesday we begin the season of Lent with a service of ashing in the church. Lent is the period of 40 days in preparation for Easter, the heart of the Christian faith, when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. The ashes (made partly from the burnt palm crosses remaining from last year’s Palm Sunday) are a powerful symbol of our human condition: we are dust and to dust we shall return. Yet God loves our dust so much that he sent his only Son to share our life, to die and rise again to transform us and our world. Lent is a personal and communal journey of conversion - to transformation and the joy of Easter!
Collects for Lent
Holy God,
our lives are laid open before you:
rescue us from the chaos of sin
and through the death of your Son
bring us healing and make us whole
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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