Ash Wednesday (March 5)

When I was a study-abroad student in Granada, Spain 25 years ago (wow!) I remember how cool it was to celebrate Lent and Easter in a different country.  La Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Granada was a series of processions honoring many saints, the apostles and, of course, Jesus.  How the community rallied around these processions was quite amazing!

Two days ago, I got a little glimpse of a tradition at one of the churches in Viterbo, Santa Maria di Verita (Saint Mary of the Truth) that, in all of the Ash Wednesdays back in the States I've gone to never have I seen The Burning of the Palms.

In the picture you see the congregation filing in with their saved palms from Palm Sunday 2013.  Yvonne, my Italian buddy, who went with me to mass, told me that the brittled palms symbolize that while we want to be close to the Lord, we sometimes fall short through our sins (we are human after all!).  By bringing the palms to Ash Wednesday of the next year and adding them to the cauldrons to be burned, it is an offering to God in hope He will forgive our sins.  Burning the palms down to ashes also is hope that over the coming 40 days of Lent and the coming year we will make sacrifices in our lives and refrain from sin in an effort to be drawn closer to God.

I'd never heard Ash Wednesday put quite that way but it certainly makes sense.  As you can see in the picture, the small cauldrons of dried palms lit up like a match box in a church that dates back to the 12th century.  Don't worry, the church ceiling was (and still is) plenty high!  Once the cauldrons were lit after a short prayer, they were put outside the church doors as mass proceeded!  Happy Lent Everyone!

                             "In life, that which you do not need weighs you down"

                                                       ~ Mother Theresa ~