Ash Wednesday in Twenty Minutes
February 19, 2007
As participants gather, they are handed a brown paper sandwich bag containing a votive candle, a pen, a few short texts, and a piece of flash paper with the words “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return” written on it. The texts include the creation of adam, the 103rd Psalm, and Carl Sagan’s stardust quote (”…We long to return. And we can’t, because the cosmos is also within us. We’re ‘made’ of star stuff….”)
The service begins with everyone sitting on the floor in a circle. An initial singing of “bless the lord my soul” helps folks focus and buys time for latecomers. (I might switch in a different tune - I’m not nuts about the word “soul” as a translation for nephesh, especially on ash wednesday which is so physical in focus).
After the singing, one of the leaders lights his or her candle and indicates that everyone else should do likewise. We are told to meditate/pray during the recitation of a psalm (either 103 or 139). The psalm is done with a sung antiphonal refrain but instead of a reader the text is sampled in both hebrew and english.
At the end of the psalm meditation, the music fades back into a low ambient pulse. participants are told to write on their papers a) something they love about their bodies, b) something they don’t love about their bodies, c) something they love about being the age they are, d) something they don’t love about the aging process. Then they are asked to find someone who they don’t know very well and share.
When the two are done sharing, they exchange papers, bless one another, invoke the words “remember that you are dust etc,” and burn the other’s paper. When the papers start going up in smoke, the music ends.
Finally, three activities occur simultaneously:
- those who want ashes can get them. After you get them you give them to the next person.
- those who don’t want ashes but want something can get healing dust from chimayo and still feel involved. (People can, of course, get both if they like.)
- people who want neither can sit, meditate, or quietly sing (maybe the taize tune again, or something else)