TOGETHER, WE BEGIN AGAIN.

This week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday with games, mardi-gras beads, pancakes and sausage, the burning of the palms, and some riveting cornhole. Fr. Ben finally defeated Fr. Andrew in a cornhole run-off culminating in a pancake toss! Shrove Tuesday offers a sort of final hoorah as we climb into the cave of our hearts on Ash Wednesday to cross the threshold into the 6-week season of Lent.

Ash Wednesday, my favorite day of the year, is so emotionally charged as we met people in the church three times, at the beach in the morning, in Mizner Park in the afternoon, and a new Ashes-to-Go pitstop at Whole Foods! It's emotionally charged because we meet one another at the foundation of the human condition saying: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." If anyone needs to take on the Benedictine beginner's mind, Ash Wednesday is the day to set your aim for the season. Fr. Andrew even took to making that aim on high schoolers' wrists as a new Imposition of the Ashes - tattoo style. A funny moment was when two older Jewish women came up to me and asked for a blessing saying, "No ashes, please. My husband would lose his mind if I walked into the house with that on my forehead!"

All that to say, Episcopalians bless. We bless as we go into the desert with Jesus, the desert of Boca Raton, the desert of our relationships, and the desert within ourselves. And God only knows what will happen when we simply show up in life in Presence. A blessed Lent to you all. Together, we begin again.  

In Christ,

Fr. Ben+