Date: February 14, 2024
Given we set the date of Easter on the basis of the first full moon after the spring equinox, it is inevitable that the date of Ash Wednesday will also vary. Today is Ash Wednesday and it coincides with Valentine’s Day. The last time this happened was 2018, before that it was 1945. The next time will be 2029.
Yet perhaps the coincidence is good. Love and Lent are good bedfellows. The obligation of living and life is love. The challenge of love is sin. We know we are called to live lives honoring others; but we find it too easy to allow selfishness and brokenness to disrupt our obligations to others. The work of Lent is learning how to love.
So, welcome to Ash Wednesday. We gather at 8.15am for the imposition of the Ashes – the only liturgy where we go twice to the altar. And let us use this day to reflect on the lessons we need to learn as we seek to be a people of love.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary