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- In Glen Ellyn, Ill., Heidi Johns, associate pastor of Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, administers ashes during Ashes to Go for busy commuters at a train station.
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- Instead of ashes, St. John Lutheran, Owatonna, Minn., holds a “Water Wednesday” service that concentrates on the verse “remember that you are a child of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”
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- Ash Wednesday sunshine at First Lutheran Church in Bothell, Wash.
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- Since 1952, Penny Timmerman, a member of Mt. Tabor Lutheran Church, West Columbia, S.C., has attended Ash Wednesday services.
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- Ashes are the primary image for the day. Since the 11th century, the ashes have been made by burning the fronds from the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, we are marked with ashes — a sign of our death and of our sorrow for sin. The ashes trace a cross on our forehead, where the baptismal water first marked us with the cross of Jesus, God’s grace.
