Ash Wednesday

This morning after chapel, last year's palms (from Palm Sunday) were burned to ashes (for the imposition of ashes later today).  There is a rite that goes with this; it's not in the hymnal so I can't find the exact words.  But there's something in there about how ashes show the frailty of our bodies.  "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness like the flowers of the field.  The grass withers; the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it.  The people are grass.  The grass withers...." (Isaiah 40)

Boy, that hits you different after you spent last Eastertide in ICU.  Frail bodies, indeed!