It's International Women's Day, so here's a helpful meme.
Cheers,
LSP
Ashes are a statement that death and suffering are real.Glitter is a sign of our hope, which does not despair.Glitter signals our promise to repent, to show up, to witness, to work.Glitter never gives up -- and neither do we.
Glitter+Ash is an inherently queer sign of Christian belief, blending symbols of mortality and hope, of penance and celebration. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, a season of repentance. During Lent, Christians look inward and take account in order to move forward with greater health. At this moment in history, glitter ashes will be a powerful reminder of St. Augustine’s teaching that we cannot despair because despair paralyzes, thwarting repentance and impeding the change that we are called to make.
Glitter+Ash exquisitely captures the relationship between death and new life. We do not live in fear of ash - of death - we place it on our foreheads for the world to see.
In the Scriptures for last Sunday, Quinquagesima, the Lenten theme was brought to still more perfect clarity, with Jesus’ announcement to the twelve: “Behold we go up to Jerusalem.” That is the central theme of Lent. We go up to Jerusalem with Jesus, to witness there the almighty charity of God in the Passion of his Son, and to be transformed by that same charity. As with the blind beggar by the road to Jericho, in that Gospel lesson, the blind eyes of our faith are to be opened to the glory of his sacrifice, and, as St. Paul told us on the Epistle lesson, that charity, that obedient, self-giving love, that steadfast, clear-sighted willing of the good, which is manifest in Calvary, is to be the substance of our own new life, the very essence of our spiritual maturity, the good and honest heart, the very habit of life of heaven, without which – whatever our gift, our struggles and achievements – we are “nothing worth”; just “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal”, just noisy nonsense.
The Scripture lessons for those weeks of preparation have shown us the meaning, and the character, and the urgency of the pilgrimage of Lent. Now it remains only to undertake it, and today’s lessons urge us to do just that; with penitence for our wickedness and carelessness and double-mindedness; with a discipline which is not just external forms, but the inner discipline of mind and heart; striving not for worldly self-improvement, but for the treasure of eternal good. It is only by earnest, and persistent, and sometimes painful discipline that we are weaned from mindless conformity to worldly ends, and find that renewal of the mind which is spiritual freedom and maturity. That liberation is what Lent is all about. “Behold we go up to Jerusalem.” There is our treasure, in the charity of God, and there must our hearts be also.