Prayer

Dear God, 

Watch over us with tender love, as today we celebrate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of this Lenten season. 

We sign with a cross –ashes on our foreheads to remind us that there is a part of ourselves that is of this earth and that one day will return to dust. 

But more important, the cross and the ashes are placed on a vessel that houses the Holy Spirit- that in this broken vessel is the very presence of God made visible in our acts of love and in the tremendous creativity within the human spirit. 

Help us during these 40 days to ponder a better balance of these natures within ourselves. 

As Christ died and rose from the dead—so too will we rise one day to be with God and all those gone before us. 

Bless us as we begin our Lenten journey— 

through Christ our Lord. 

AMEN