Ash Wednesday, the traditional Christian day that marks the beginning of Lent – a time of reflection and fasting, leading up to Easter – is this Wednesday.
The University community is invited to a special service of worship and reflection, led by Rev. Tim Emmett, pastor of Waleska United Methodist Church, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in The Nook, Hasty Student Life Center. The service will include prayer, Scripture readings, a sermon, invitation to receive ashes and prayers of confession.
“Ash Wednesday has been called ‘a Copernican Revolution for the soul.’ Receiving ashes on our foreheads in the shape of the cross reminds us that we are not the center of the universe,” Emmett said. “We are dust, not demigods. But, although we are dust, we also are loved. We are ‘nothing but dust’ and ‘children of God’ at the same time. Ash Wednesday helps us to face the mess that we are and the hope that we have because of God’s grace.”
Student Ansley Avera, who works closely with campus ministry, encourages students to attend the service to be reminded of the Lenten season.
“This service is going to be a beautiful reminder of God’s love for us and what he has done for us,” she said. “We will be humbly reminded how we simply come from dust but at the same time how we are made in God’s image. On Ash Wednesday, God offers His love for us as we truly are.”
