My friend Gabe, a seminarian over at General Theological Seminary, recently put up a great post over at his blog, Ultimate Concern, reflecting on his experience imposing ashes on Ash Wednesday at St. Paul’s Chapel, near the World Trade Center site in New York City. Here’s a taste:
As the hour passed, I became more and more aware of the transparency of which all ministry is capable. Though I had various duties at my home parish, my personality was almost always part of my work, adding color and particularity to what I was doing. At St. Paul’s that day, it did not matter to any of those people who I was in my particularity. What mattered to them is that I was the man in the cassock with the ashes in the church awaiting their approach with calm openness, making contact with them in this stylized, ritual gesture and leaving a mark.
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