Yesterday, I was pondering the palm frond that I have had on my little prayer wall since last Palm Sunday. It was a drive through Palm Sunday because of the pandemic. Who ever thought there would be a drive through church service?
I remember how one of our priests would ask us to bring our palms for last year back to church before Ash Wednesday so he could burn them for the ashes for Ash Wednesday. I am not sure if I had even made that connection to the year past before. I am not even sure I knew that the ashes were actually burnt palm fronds.
Besides the shes being form the previous Palm Sunday, the fact we brought them back and they were all burned together was meaningful to me. This year, that had to change because of COVID19. I decided that I would simply burn the palm we had for ashes today. (Just beware, that it can be a bit stinky if you do it indoors. If I do it again, I will open our fireplace vent sooner.)
Today, before I marked my forehead with the ashes, I read my Lenten resources for the first time. I did not do much planning ahead this year. There are just two that stood out to me in the last couple days.
The book Sacred Time by Christine Valters Paintner, I had actually pre-ordered a bit ago from Ave Maria Press, and it just happened to arrive yesterday.
The other resource – The Poetry of Lent: A Lenten Companion to Mary Oliver’s Devotions – is a download that was recommended in an email I receive from the Wisdom Ways Center in St. Paul, MN.
In just one day, I can see what a gift these will be for my Lenten journey this year.
In the book Sacred Time, Christine talks about horizontal time and vertical time. Horizontal time is time measured by a clock. Vertical time is time that is not measured and is slower. It seems that vertical time holds a much larger picture and includes eternity. The saying “I lost track of time” is a clue to being in vertical time vs horizontal.
As I marked myself with the sign of the cross on my forehead, instead of the usual phrases “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return” or “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel” that we usually associate with the act, I considered how I made a vertical line then a horizontal line. I am not sure what all that is telling me, and I do not have a new phrase, but there is something significant in remembering to make vertical time or sacred time a priority.
Lenten Blessings,
Christine
