Area begins Lenten season

Christians around the region flocked to services for Ash Wednesday, marking the start of the Lenten season.

Members of Salem-St. Paul Lutheran Church in Kresgeville attended a noon service that included the imposition of ashes, a symbolic blessing provided by the reverend.

“Ash Wednesday is a day when we remember our brokenness and sinfulness, but yet we also remember God’s constant love for us, and the fact that Jesus died to forgive our sins,” the Rev. Deborah K. Scheffey said.

The gathering began with a litany focused around the concept of ashes, and how they represent not the end of the Christian journey, but the beginning.

“After the zeal for living has ebbed and life has run its course, there is nothing left but ashes,” Scheffey said.

“We are dust, and to dust we shall return,” the congregation said in response.

“But ashes are not the end. This Lenten season begins in ashes, but it will not end in ashes. We begin in dust, but we shall end in resurrection glory. Enter this season, then, with confidence and with hope: Ashes are not the end,” Scheffey said.

Following the confession and forgiveness of sins, members of the congregation approached the reverend to be blessed with a cross of ashes on their foreheads.

“The ashes remind us of our humanity and our mortality, and the cross is a symbol of Jesus’ death on the cross, but also the new life for us,” Scheffey said.

The ashes are composed of the palms from the previous Palm Sunday — the holiday before Easter that celebrates Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem — which are broken and burned, then mixed with oil.

Kresgeville resident Shirley Haydt has been attending Salem-St. Paul Lutheran Church for most of her life, and has been confirmed and married in the church. The Ash Wednesday service is of particular importance to Haydt and her faith.

“It means to me the start of the Lenten season, reaching up to the 40 days until Easter. I like to come to this service,” Haydt said.

A short service followed the imposition of ashes, focusing on entrusting God, even when his message is difficult to comprehend.

Linda and Ed Harpel of Effort best summarized the ceremony and service as a means for those of the faith to make preparations for the holy season leading up to the spring holiday, a monumental part of the Christian calendar celebrating Jesus rising from the dead.

“It’s the beginning of the Easter holiday, preparation for Easter, and spiritual preparation,” Linda Harpel said.