“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return…
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return…
Remember that you are dust…

The priest moves from one finite being to the next, touching foreheads and whispering the ancient words that mark this day.

Unlike any other day, today, Ash Wednesday is the day we remember our finite-ness in the presence of an infinite God.
We remember that we came from dust, and one day, to dust we will return.
We remember that our lives are fleeting.
We remember that God is not.

Today, unlike any other day we bear ashes on our foreheads
in the sign of the cross.
We are dust.

Today, we are called to look at the ways we distract ourselves and forget.
Today, and tomorrow…and for the next forty days–we remember.
We heed the call to return,
and to remember.

I will not forget You.