Ash Wednesday Homily: 2026 St. Alfred's Episcopal Church
Ash Wednesday 2026 The Rev. Dale C. Hathaway Liturgy of actions We begin a season of liturgies that convey as much through our actions as through our words. Today is one of two days the Prayer Book stipulates as fast days. Just two days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, we’re asked to fast. Some of us will. Some of us won’t. This beginning to the season of Lent, Ash Wednesday, of course means ashes, ashes on the forhead. We do that even though the gospel reading seems to say, “Don’t do that.” At the end of Lent we will wave palm branches, branches we could have pruned from our own trees at home. Traditionally on Maundy Thursday we would wash feet, at St. Alfred’s we wash hands, not in private but quite publicly. One of the illustrations for how powerful our actions can be is a clear memory I have. On an Ash Wednesday more than 40 years ago, my oldest son, then about 3, was so upset by seeing the ashes on people’s foreheads that he immediately walked out of the service. Each Sunday w...