Ash Wednesday

On this day, the inauguration of the 40 days of Lent, the faithful recall their mortality in anticipation of the hope and promise of resurrection and the great feast of Easter. Today's chapel sermon was entitled "Adam's Epitaph." The epitaph itself is encapsulated in one of today's scripture texts:

020905 Ash Wed Originally uploaded by kim.e.

And to the man he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them. (Gen 3:17-21 NRSV)