Today our Pastoral Care Department in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Priest offered an ecumenical Ash Wednesday Service with Imposition of Ashes to our Employees, Visitors, and the few patients who could come to our Chapel for the service.  In addition the ashes were delivered to nearly every department in the hospital.  My assignment was to visit the offices in our building across the street from the hospital which houses offices for many departments.  People were surprised that even though they were not located in the hospital that the hospitality of bringing the ashes to them was being extended.

During the day I also learned of two patient deaths.  Those deaths brought an enhanced sense of reality to the words, “Remember from dust you came and to dust you shall return.”  Those are the words I had spoken as I made the mark of the cross on some of the foreheads of the people I saw earlier in the day.  The tradition of imposing ashes took on new meaning as I was seeing people fulfill the words I had spoken several hours earlier.  It was a good experiential demonstration to me that we must be ready to trust on the promises of God every day.