Ash Wednesday Service 7pm March 5 – the original #AshesToGo in a church setting

Ashes in the form of a cross

All are invited to join us for Ash Wednesday service at 7:00PM on March 5th.

How might you get closer to God this Lent? How might we as members of this community be light to one another? To those around us?

Come and join us as we begin this most holy season.

[Editor: Father Manny has participated in the innovative Ashes to Go program for 2 years and will most likely be at the Cary Metra station on March 5, available to impose ashes on anyone who requests it during the morning commute]

Ash Wednesday Video: Isaiah 58 1-12 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice

This reading from Isaiah by Cindy DeBock contrasts fasting and repentance with hunger and the struggle against oppression, and incidentally reminds us all why offering a food pantry to the working poor in our area is so important.

Isaiah 58:1-12

Thus says the high and lofty one
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments,
they delight to draw near to God.
“Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.

Images:Father Manny’s Ashes To Go Wednesday

Father Manny’s picture has been around the Internets – even as far as a Parisian stock photo web site. As the images are probably under copyright with the AP and the Daily Herald, the link to the Ash Wednesday photos page is below. Father Manny’s pictures appear as number 2, 5, 13, and 17. His picture was also featured later that week in the “This Week in Pictures” page.

Link: Images: Ash Wednesday in the suburbs – DailyHerald.com