Ash Wednesday

Pastor Steve Garnaas-Holmes writes,

Ash Wednesday

Remember you are stardust,

and to stardust you shall return.

You are the ash of a great fire within a star.

The star shines within you.

You are the dust of the earth, given breath.

The breath of God breathes within you.

In fear you have shrouded that light,

and led yourself by the darkness.

In fear you have fled from the dust,

only to cling to dust that has no breath.

You don’t need to punish your body,

you need to honor that it comes from God.

You don’t need to separate from your body,

you need to return to it.

You can’t be other than dust

but you can return to the Breath.

You can’t be other than light

but you can free yourself from trying.

What veils your glory?

What catches your breath?

What betrays your belovedness?

What separates you from the world’s flesh?

Become dust of the earth again,

moved only by God’s breath.

Given life by the Breath within the Breath,

become an earthling.

 

Your repentance is to return to the stardust that you are,

return to your heavenly Source.

Return to the light that you are,

shed all that shrouds your light.

Remember that you are stardust,

and to stardust you shall return.

(Unfolding Light, February 17, 2010)