The title of this featured painting of hers comes from the poem “We Shake with Joy” by Mary Oliver, reproduced here in full: Charcoal, ashes, soil, acrylic, and cold wax on panel, 12 × 12 in.Īustin-based artist Meena Matocha uses charcoal, ashes, soil, and wax to create figurative paintings that explore the tensions between joy and grief, life and death, and the eternal and temporal. LOOK: We Shake with Joy, We Shake with Grief by Meena Matocha Meena Matocha (American, 1977–), We Shake with Joy, We Shake with Grief, 2019. He explores the biblical symbolism of the ritual, its history, and its importance for Christian formation. Repent and believe the gospel,” the pastor pronounces as he or she smears the ash (made from burnt palm fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday) on young and old alike.įor a Protestant defense of Ash Wednesday, see “To Ash or Not to Ash” by the Rev.

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Today many Christians will be receiving the sign of the cross in ash on their foreheads-a symbol of death and repentance. These are the central themes of Psalm 90, commonly read on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,Īnd prosper for us the work of our hands. Let your work be manifest to your servants,Īnd your glorious power to their children. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, So that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. Our secret sins in the light of your countenance.įor all our days pass away under your wrath Įven then their span is only toil and trouble In the morning it flourishes and is renewed Like grass that is renewed in the morning You sweep them away they are like a dream, Or ever you had formed the earth and the world,įrom everlasting to everlasting you are God. you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Imposition of ashes 2018