Archive for the ‘Ash Wednesday’ Category

Ash Wednesday – Lent

February 17, 2026

As I write this, I am conscious that my calendar announces that today is the beginning of Ramadan, the time of fasting observed by Muslims. From today practicing Muslims will not consume food or drink between sunrise and sunset. This may mean rising at 4am for breakfast and then eating and drinking nothing until 8pm. I know this because my visit to Israel in 2015 coincided with Ramadan. In Old Jerusalem a canon was fired to indicate the beginning of and the end of the fast and the empty streets in the Palestinian districts filled with food carts only. after 8pm. Ramadan and its concluding celebration of Eid are now well-known in the Western world. The ABC news site has even published recipes for Ramadan. In my childhood, newspapers and magazines would. have featured recipes for Lent. Today Ash Wednesday and Lent do not even warrant a mention on my calendar!

Image of smoke from canon. Jerusalem 2015

Culturally Lent has become irrelevant and in the churches we seem to have lost the sense of solidarity that came with giving something up for Lent. This is due in part to the increasing secularisation of our society, but also relates to a more relaxed attitude in the church and the trivialising of the practice by making it a test of will-power rather than a freedom to focus on God and not on oneself.

I don’t have a solution, just a sense of grief that the traditions which enriched our faith and which were evident to the culture around us seem to have lost their place and we haven’t yet found something which unites us as followers of Christ.

The purpose of fasting is to pare down our lives to what is essential such that we can pay attention to God’s provision and can fully appreciate what we do have. We try to give up those things that prevent us from focussing on God. This might include meal plans that are less extravagant and easier to prepare – freeing us from the distraction that food can be in our lives. Equally, it might be useful to give up the self-absorption that reveals itself in resentment, self-pity, envy, ingratitude. If instead we practice gratitude and forgiveness, joy in other’s successes, we will (over time), rid ourselves of the negativity and bitterness that cause us to look inward rather than outward into the world and into God’s creation. We will make room for God and the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – will be evident in our lives and be visible to the world.

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Ash Wednesday

March 5, 2025

Ash Wednesday

On Sunday during the liturgy[1], we burnt the palm crosses given out last year on Palm Sunday. The ashes from these crosses will form the ash with which church goers will be marked today.  The wording for this ritual was so moving that I thought it worth sharing.

The Burning of the Palm Crosses

Let us give thanks and worship God with reverence and awe

for our God is a consuming fire.

On Palm Sunday last year we carried these crosses of palm as a sign of the victory of

Jesus. They were new and green and fresh. They were a sign to us of all the good and

holy within us that responds to God’s call in our lives.

But they are made in the form of the cross.

They reminded us that like the first disciples we, too, fail to live into the truth of Jesus

and must humbly wait for God’s grace to bring us home. We have kept them

throughout this year. Now we give them up to the fire.

The palm crosses are lit.

The ashes call to mind endings. The end of unclear thinking, insecure faith, wavering

commitment and the end of the struggle between death and life.

Loving God,

bless us as we prepare to look deeply within ourselves

through the coming season of Lent.

Let these ashes be for us a way to journey more deeply into Christ. Amen.

Two things stood out for me – the newness and freshness of the crosses when we received them last year contrasted with the endings that the ashes call to mind.

The words with which we are marked with ash: “Dust you are and to dust you will return” are both powerful and humbling words. Not only do they recall our creation from the earth, but they serve as a reminder of our insignificance in the broader scheme of things. “Dust you are.” In the context of the broader community, the nations, the world, the galaxy, the universe, we are as a speck of dust – small and irrelevant except in the very small circle in which we exist. What is more, no matter what we achieve in this lifetime – fame, fortune, influence, it will come to an end.  

Knowing this put all worries, hurts, ambitions, and dreams into perspective – in the wider scheme of things they are trivial. For most of us, all our striving and all our holding on will, at the end, come to nothing. 

Lent is a wonderful time to put things into perspective, to reflect on beginnings and endings and to recalibrate our relationship with God, with each other and with creation.

May you have a holy and fruitful Lenten season.

[1] St Andrew’s Indooroopilly.

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Lent is liberation

February 14, 2018

Lent is Liberation

Ash Wednesday – 2018

Marian Free

 In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen.

 Last night a few of us gathered to share fellowship and pancakes. The discussion drifted to the question of Lent and what one should give up. There followed a time of sharing our ideas and our practices – giving up and taking up. I was somewhat taken aback when my husband took up his glass of bubbles and suggested that he could take up having a drink and reflecting on his relationship with God. On reflection I realised that there was no reason why this should not be included as a Lenten discipline. If the goal of Lent is to deepen our relationship with God and to reflect on our lives and our shortcomings, then it is important to become less straight-laced and to allow people to think outside the box!

As I further reflected, it occurred to me that a theme for Lent this year could be: “Lent is Liberation”. Lent is liberation from the possessions that chain us and from the feelings that prevent us from moving forward. In this new light, the readings set for today support this view.

Lent is liberation from selfishness and greed, liberation to bring joy and peace and hope to others – that in turn brings joy and peace and hope to ourselves.

Lent is liberation from all the negativity in our lives and liberation to recognise the goodness around us, the possibilities that exist and God’s presence in anything and everything. Paul – that expert in reversal – captures this idea when he reminds that being poor we make many rich, being unknown we are known, and dying yet we live.

Lastly Lent is liberation from hypocrisy, egoism and self-centredness, all that desires the focus to be on ourselves.

Lent is the absolute liberation, joy and wonder of being ourselves – unfettered, unmasked, wanting for nothing but totally content in and reliant on our relationship with God.

May you have a fruitful and constructive Lent.

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A quiet observance

February 10, 2016

Ash Wednesday

Matthew 6:1-8,14-18

Marian Free

 

In the name of God who created us and who, with our consent, continues to recreate us. Amen.

Jerusalem - Ramadan

Canon fire to mark end of fasting.

In 2015, we were in Jerusalem during Ramadan. Two things stood out, one was the fact that it was not until 8:00pm that the streets came alive. Food vendors who had been there for most of the day suddenly became busy as Palestinians came out to eat. The second was the canon (yes, canon) that helpfully fired at 4:00am to remind people that the time to fast had begun and again at 8:00pm to indicate that the fast had ended. Our Palestinian driver was observing Ramadan and while we Westerners ate lunch, he sat in the bus eating nothing.

One of the most challenging things about being in a largely Muslim country is the observance of faith. Five times a day the Muezzin gives the call to prayer – a haunting chant that floats overhead reminding the observant to stop what they are doing and offer worship to God. Five times a day faithful Muslims unroll their prayer mats and in full view of the world make their obeisance. For myself the call to prayer is a powerful reminder of the presence of God in every aspect of life, further, it always seems to me that such a public proclamation is an indictment of the Christian world whose faith is practiced behind closed door. (We might ring bells before services, but today few churches ring the Angelus.)

I think that it would be fair to say that in today’s secular world, more people know about Ramadan than they do about Lent. The reason for this can be placed directly at our door. If our observance is lack-lustre or non-existent, there is no reason for others to ask what we are doing and why. If we ourselves are not prepared to demonstrate that it is possible to go without for a short time or that it is necessary to hone our spiritual practices, how can we possibly confront the materialism and secularism of the world around us?

That does not mean that we should fast loudly and blatantly. It certainly doesn’t mean that we should go about with long faces so that everyone is able to notice how much we are suffering for our faith. Just the opposite – our practice of Lent should be quiet and unobtrusive. If our abstinence or our practice is noticed by others, we can say, without fanfare, something like: “Oh, this is just something that I am doing for Lent.” It is just possible that this will lead to further questions about why we do such things in Lent and give us opportunities to expand on the benefits of devoting a period of time to being less self-obsessed.

It is possible too that some will find our Lenten practice disquieting and confronting. Some people may feel uncomfortable around us if they are being extravagant and we are being economic, if they are feasting and we are fasting. Hopefully their disquiet may lead to further thought and questions (just as the Muezzin confronts my failure to display my faith more publicly).

Either way, without trumpeting our self-righteousness or proclaiming our self-discipline, an observance of Lent by more than just a few of us, may just enable the secular world to understand that we take our faith seriously, that our practice of the faith is more than just outward form and that God as known through Jesus Christ is indeed a very real presence in the world.

Let this be a year in which we take our practice seriously and in which our observance of Lent contributes to the knowledge of God in the world.

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