Ash Wednesday – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter. It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan.[4][5] Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this 40-day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered after the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday are burned.[6]

This practice is common in much of Christendom, being celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and some Baptist denominations.[7][8]”

Please click on picture/link for full article –

Ash Wednesday – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Obamacare Contraception Mandate Attacks Religious Liberty

“Today is Ash Wednesday — the first day of Lent — the beginning of 40 days of prayer and fasting observed by Christians across the country, culminating in the Easter feast. Likewise in April, Jews will gather to celebrate Passover, one of many traditions observed under the religious freedom that the U.S. Constitution was designed to preserve. Now, though, that freedom is under direct attack by the very government that purports to represent the people, and that is but the first step in Obamacare’s re-writing of America’s blueprint.”

Please click on link for story text –Obamacare Contraception Mandate Attacks Religious Liberty.

Brother Lawrence on Worship

“The end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshippers of GOD we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity.”

Lawrence, Brother (2011-03-24). The Practice of the Presence of God the Best Rule of a Holy Life (Kindle Locations 129-130). Kindle Edition.

Rise in crime intensifies unease in once-safe Egypt – chicagotribune.com

Peanut Gallery: There is just no way “to put the genie back in the bottle.”

“Reporting from Cairo— The headlines reflect a previously unknown cruelty: a woman gunned down in a rich Cairo neighborhood, a rash of carjackings, a deadly soccer riot, a stream of smuggled arms that have given muscle to criminal gangs once easily outgunned by police.

The revolution that inspired this country one year ago has set loose a menacing air that Egyptians find unfamiliar. Bristling beneath the political battle for power against the ruling generals is an insecurity over crime and a bitterness that has darkened Egypt’s congenial nature.”

Please click on picture/link for full story –

Rise in crime intensifies unease in once-safe Egypt – chicagotribune.com.

Morning Reading: John 4.23-24 ESV

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

“The heart of Worship”