He prayed, 'Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Savior.
In the darkness of the quiet stone church on Ash Wednesday, I went forward to the front at the end of a long line and, when my turn came, knelt before the pastor.