Ashes remind us that we must die to receive, through God's grace, everlasting life. Ashes bring us to Lent, the penitential season. Through the door beyond the tapestry we find the forty days given us each year to see how much our lives reflect our baptismal vows. At the end of Lent hangs the colorful Palm Sunday tapestry of the joyous procession of Jesus and His followers into the Holy City. The Palm Sunday door opens into Holy Week and more familiar tapestries each with its own door, its own questions.
Shadows increase daily until all is shadow after the Last Supper.
It is us now.