Worship Weblog

Dirty fingernails after Ash Wednesday

Posted by cicw

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

From one blogging pastor in the CCblogs network:

Every year after Ash Wednesday, it takes a while for me to clean out the ashes completely from under my fingernails. I don’t know if other ministers have this problem, but like most ministerial burdens, this one is also a blessing.

In a middle-class church like mine, it can seem as if most of us have things together. People don’t particularly dress up at our church, but we put on our game faces and generally appear happy when we show up. Sure, there are some public struggles — deaths, battles with cancer and the occasional divorce, but mostly the wounds are hidden. Only those of us who receive pastoral confidences can look out at a congregation and see a multitude of sins and struggles. Those stories, and the grief and loss they represent, cling to us like this mix of oil and ashes, easy to spread and hard to remove. Once a year we have the grace to say it out loud and make it visible for all to see.

continued…

Tags: ashwednesday, blogging, pastoralcare, reflection, suffering