Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris…
Remember [man] that you are dust and unto dust you shall return…
Sometimes a cross is traced on the forehead with ashes. Sometimes ashes are sprinkled on the head, as is the case here with Pope Benedict XVI, Ash Wednesday 2013, the last major public event of his pontificate.
The pedagogical, medicinal punishment for original sin is death. We’re not so tough after all, are we? No. We’re not. We will all die. We do need a Savior.
It is that death that the Lord took on Himself so as to have the right in justice to have mercy on us. Apart from His grace, we hate goodness and kindness, as we think it is incriminating, instead of an invitation, and so we have to kill that goodness and kindness to get it out of the way of our perspective, leaving us to what we are most comfortable with, our caving in upon ourselves in all egoism and darkness, distraction for the sake of distraction.
In justice, He doesn’t release us from the just effects of original sin, such as death, but, by His grace, He gives us the wherewithal to be good and kind and… and… to go to heaven, where all effects of sin will fall away.
Mercy is founded on justice, is a potential part of the virtue of justice as Saint Thomas Aquinas says in his commentary on the Sentences. Mercy is majestic because of the justice upon which it is founded.
We see the glory of the Lord, the greatness of His love for us, whilst He hangs upon the Cross.
Our Lord love us so very much.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
How very beautiful! Crying here!
Thank you Father Byers for sharing this solemn event with our Holy Father. He is very much in my heart. I am his little child ( in the order of grace) who wants to be beside him especially during this time with all the things going on. I remember many years ago when my spiritual director/father was very sick and was in the hospital, I wanted so much to be with him but was not allowed. Sobbing like an abandoned child, the good Lord gave me such peace and allowed me to see my selfishness and I heard in my heart ” you are not to be served but to serve”. Happy and Holy Lent dear Father Byers. Thanks for all your labor of love for the church.
Thank you Father for all that you share. A wonderful gift for all of us…
Father, this is from today’s bolettino. It means something to next events?
RINUNCE E NOMINE
NOMINA DI UDITORE GENERALE DELLA CAMERA APOSTOLICA
Il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha nominato Uditore Generale della Camera Apostolica S.E. Mons. Giuseppe Sciacca, Vescovo tit. di Fondi, Segretario Generale del Governatorato dello Stato della Città del Vaticano.
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Getting ready for the conclave. Before the actual voting takes place, there are a number of encounters during which exhortations are made and discourses on the State of the Church Today are made. The last one to give a State of the Church address was Cardinal Ratzinger, an address which seems to have set them on their heels.
Beautiful photo – thank you. May I ask what will happen to Pope Benedict’s work to pronounce on Medjugorje? I have never found it credible but find it upsetting when I come across people who say they visit year after year and the longer it is up in the air the more difficult they will find to accept the denial which I am certain will come – but when?
pelerin: That, and a thousand and one other questions!
Father, I have a question. I went to an Ash Wednesday service at noon today, not my parish because it is 45 miles from me.
Anyway, at this parish, when I went up to receive ashes the priest said, “Repent and believe in the Gospel” I almost said, “HUH?” My granddaughter went to the Deacon and he used the proper words, ” Remember man, that you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” I never in my life heard what this priest said when I have received ashes every year, all my life.
My question is this. Is there an option to say one or the other? I feel cheated, sorta, kinda.
Denise: Yes, there is that option. No worries. I like the dusty one, but of course, I’m a hermit, and I wrote on Genesis!
But the other brings us to the evangelization of Saint John the Baptist and Jesus.
But I still like the unto dust one, especially with the use of ashes. Just makes sense.
Thanks! I just never heard that before. I like the dusty one too.
Yes, we will all die. It is good to think about this a lot. It gives us perspective.