Ash Wednesday | The Slow Way

ASH WEDnesday | The Slow Way 

Lent arrives in winter -- yet “lent” is from the Old English word “springtime.” Amidst cold, dark days, Lent promises the arrival of spring, all in good time. In Latin, “lente” means “slowly.” Indeed, this is a season for slowing down.

Lent re-orients, re-grounds, and re-centers us, turning us back toward the God who is here with us – along the Slow Way. Over the forty gradually lengthening days that lead to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection day, Lent calls us to face ourselves, to acknowledge the wounds in our own souls. To take time to taste the earthly experience of our humanity.

On this Ash Wednesday, the Slow Way begins with a cry for God’s mercy, broken as we are. God will redeem us out of the dust.

This is the litany to earth and ashes,

To the dust of roads and vacant rooms,

To the fine silt circling in the shaft of sun,

Settling indifferently on books and beds.

This is a prayer to praise what we become:

‘Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return.’

Savor its taste—the bitterness of earth and ashes.

— from “The Litany” by Dana Gioia