![]() ![]() In one Central Asian country, the average person lives to forty-four and only one child in three reaches the age of five. It offers an introduction and prayer agenda for each of them. The book identifies “the fifty-two countries where faith counts most” – that is, the countries in which persecution against Christians is currently the greatest (p.11). Recently I have been reading a book edited by Johan Companjen and titled, “Please Pray For Us” (Bethany: 2000). We wore the cross easily.īut it is not so easy elsewhere in the world. No one seemed in the least bothered by the smudge. ![]() I was impressed with the odd picture that followed later in the narthex: swarms of ordinary, white, middle-American Lutherans milling about with a smear of ash on their faces, without the least bit of shame. As scores of my friends and fellow workers approached the altar, I marked a cross upon their foreheads with the ashy mixture. I was given a small vial of ashes mixed with oil. We call it “The Imposition of Ashes.” Maybe some of you know the ritual, too. On Ash Wednesday I participated in a centuries-old Christian ritual, still practiced in my church. “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.'” (Matthew 16:24) ![]()
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