This is an excerpt from The National Immigration Forum at WeChooseWelcome.com. Let us reflect on this poem, with humble hearts and open spirits:
Dust to Dust by Brooklyn Stephens
With ashes of Palm Sunday past, we are marked with a cross.
We bear the remembrances on our bodies that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
We are marked with a cross of ash & met with the reality of our humanity.
We are marked with a cross of ash & met with the reality of how we have not honored others’ humanity.
We are marked with a cross of ash & met with the reality that we are all in need of refuge from our inner fragility and poverty.
The ground is level in our shared humanity. There is solidarity in the dirt.
We must remember that this modern day observation of “sackcloth and ashes” must not be for public display, but rather for inner repentance and transformation that leads to just actions of love.
“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” – Psalm 51:2
~ Terri