Ash Wednesday
February 6, 2008

As we begin the journey
of forty days together,
it seems we are at the beginning
of a long and winding road,
as was captured of the road
that leads to the
Shrine of the
Most Blessed Sacrament
in December, 2007


That fine Marine is my husband
out for his 'morning mortification'.
I pray that our interior pilgrimage
this lent is rech in purpose.
Our ashes are only possible
because there is substance to burn.
May our hearts burn during this season
with the fire of desire
to "do whatever He tells us".

This is the cross that
illuminates at night along
that long and winding road to the
Shrine of the
Most Blessed Sacrament.
What struck me to stillness
when I was there was how
the bones of the trees were
postured toward their Creator.
The blossoms of the seasons
would not have revealed the
unsurpassing beauty of
the grand design of such a Creator!


There was great beauty in these
magnificent bones,
with the occasional evergreen to remind
me of the hope to come.
Even the cross is stripped of the
fruitedness of our lenten end.
I was thinking of us when I took
this picture,
how eager I was to share it as we
all began our lent together here at
Sempermoms,
May the bones of our faith
frame the work of our hands.
It is the season to be still,
to be pruned,
to become...
Love,
Sharon