Join us at Mission Hills for our online Ash Wednesday Service on February 17th at 7:00pm!
Everyone is welcome!

A little about why we practice Ash Wednesday…

Jesus said, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”

On Ash Wednesday, we gather as the global Christian community to remember that “we are dust and to dust, we will return” and that our bodies are temporal and will go the way of the earth. The spiritual practice of having ashes placed on one’s forehead may seem to be only an outer manifestation of an inner spiritual experience. However, it is intended to transform our lives within our local and global communities.

Ash Wednesday invites us to let go of our life, and the unimportant things serve as distractions so that we may become better servants of our brothers, sisters, neighbors, and friends. As a spiritual practice, this evening can engage our crises as it prompts us to realize both our individual and shared humanity — created in the image of God.

We hope this practice will orient us to the silence and stillness of the breath and life that we have been given by God. This practice reminds us every year that the mission of Jesus begins after his time in the desert, and that we must also enter into seasons of wandering in the wilderness to emerge back into our world. As God led Jesus into the desert for 40 days, let us begin this desert journey with Ash Wednesday so that, like Jesus, we may reemerge and also announce “good news to the poor."