Ash Wednesday Service
Join us tonight @ 7 PM CT for a special Ash Wednesday service to ring in the Lenten season for quiet contemplation with inspiring music, moving readings, an uplifting message, and our meaningful Ash Wednesday Blessing ritual. Be part of this community experience as we all enter a time of reflection and growth together for the next few weeks.
Listen & Watch
Sermon Notes
Main Scripture
“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.” (Genesis 3:19)
Supporting Scriptures
“One does not live by bread alone.” —Luke 4:4
“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” —Luke 4:12
“Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” —Luke 4:8
Ash Wednesday Ritual
Traditional – Imposition of Ashes
Priest → “Remember that dust you are, and to dust you shall return;” response by recipient → “Amen”
Unity – Blessing of Awakening
Minister → “Remember the dust of your humanity, and to Spirit you shall return;” response by recipient → “Amen” or “And so it is.”
Metaphysical Interpretations
RW* – Revealing Word
MBD** – Metaphysical Bible Dictionary
fasting** – “abstinence from error thoughts, to the end that we may meditate upon spiritual truths and incorporate them into our consciousness of oneness with the Father.”
repentance* – “A turning from a belief in sin and error to a belief in God and righteousness; a reversal of mind and heart in the direction of the All-Good. When we repent, we break with mortal thought and ascend into a spiritual thought realm, the kingdom of God.”
cross** – The crystallization of two currents of thought--the state of consciousness termed sense mind. The perpendicular bar symbolizes the inner current of divine life; the horizontal bar symbolizes the cross current of human limitation. The latter symbolizes the "mind of the flesh," also, and it burdens the body with its various erroneous beliefs. The center of action of this sense mind is in the brain, and there it has to be met in the final overcoming that the I AM undertakes: "The place called The place of a skull."
