2010:365:48 Ash Wednesday

Every picture tells a story ... and this sign submitted for today's 365Project tells you that I am not dull!  Not even close to dull!  Apart from the impossibility of an immaculate house with a huge dog for company I simply am not a tidy person.  Clean enough to be healthy but chaotic enough to be happy.  I love this wee plaque which normally stays in the china cabinet but has had an outing to the windowsill.  Some day I must make a light box so that it will be easier to take photographs of small objects.

Ash Wednesday makes you think of all sorts of things and, with the first service before the crack of dawn, it has been a long day.  But a good one.  Two cathedrals were on the itinerary this afternoon following the Eucharist in Saint Nicholas'.  

Regular visitors to the blog will recognise The Spire of Hope at Saint Anne's Cathedral in Belfast. It was good to spend a wee while there and to notice some features that hadn't registered with me before.  Did you know that there is a small labyrinth just inside the west door?  Fun!  I enjoy being in Saint Anne's with its colourful kneelers and light airy feel.  The folk at the information desk are enthusiastic and helpful which makes a visitor feel welcome. 

One of the windows in the baptistery has a picture of Saint Patrick baptising at Tara.  So where better to go than to the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in Downpatrick where Patrick, Brigid and Columba are said to be buried beside the church?  The blue skies of Belfast had become rather overcast rainy ones in County Down; but undeterred we sought out the grave and had a few minutes in the cathedral.  Unfortunately it closes at 4.00 pm so  time was limited and photographs few.  Still, it was a good way to end the afternoon.

Ash Wednesday ended with a service in Saint Nicholas' at which we sang the Litany and ended the day remembering why we keep Lent.

A long day but a good one.  And so to bed ....

Lord our God,
grant us grace to desire you with our whole heart;
that so desiring, we may seek and find you;
and so finding, may love you;
and so loving, may hate those sins 
from which you have delivered us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Book of Common Prayer

Service for Ash Wednesday