Ash Wednesday "Ashes To Go" at work in our community

It’s another ordinary weekday, and in the middle of your daily tasks, you happen upon two people in a moment of what appears to be prayer. The street corner, supermarket, coffee shop, sandwich shop, is now a place where a “God” moment is happening. The church appears to have come out from behind the church doors and is suddenly where YOU are, where the “rubber meets the road” so to speak.

It’s Ash Wednesday, and you are invited to wear your ashes to mark the beginning of the season of Lent as we prepare for the coming of Easter. A centuries old tradition when ashes from the previous year’s palms from Palm Sunday are burned and the ashes used for marking the sign of a cross and a blessing.

“Ashes to Go” is about bringing spirit, belief and belonging out from behind church doors, and into the places where we go every day. It’s a simple event with deep meaning drawing on centuries of tradition and worship to provide a contemporary moment of grace.

This year on Ash Wednesday, February 18, the clergy and lay representatives of four local Episcopal churches have partnered to bring the traditional blessing of marking a person’s forehead with ashes out to the places where we work and shop.

St. David’s Episcopal - Ashburn

St. Gabriel’s Episcopal - Leesburg

St. James Episcopal - Leesburg

St. Francis Korean Episcopal - McLean

You’ll see them at the following locations:

5:30 am Sycolin Road near Park and Ride and the Homeless Shelter

6:30 am and 1 pm Plaza Street Leesburg near the 7-11

8:00 am Downtown Leesburg near the Courthous

8:00 am Near the Wegman’s Center

9:00 am at the Paxton School Campus

10:00 am at the Lansdowne Towne Center (Panera/Starbuck’s)

10am and Noon at Loudoun Inova Hospital

11:30am and 3:30 pm at St. David’s Preschool

2pm and 3pm at Loudoun