Blessing for Ash Wednesday
So let the ashes come as beginning and not as end;
The first sign but not the final.
Let them rest upon you as invocation and invitation,
And let them take you the way that ashes know to go.
May they mark you with the memory of fire
And the life that came before the burning;
The life that rises and returns
And finds its way again.
See what shimmers amid their darkness,
What endures within their dust.
See how they draw us toward the mystery
That will consume but not destroy,
That will blossom from the blazing,
That will scorch us with its joy.
Jan L. Richardson, from her blog:
The Painted Prayerbook