Comments on: The Dust of Adam

By: Memento homo, III « Sed Angli.

Memento homo, III « Sed Angli. — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:31:20 +0000

[...] dust, lent by AAK To continue our Ash Wednesday series, we republish here a posting from a Papist, but one whose thoughts more than merit our [...]

By: AB

AB — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:24:21 +0000

The author’s remarks about people going about in public with smudges on their foreheads reminds me of my experience in Saudi Arabia. Non-Moslem religious services are illegal, but from time to time we could “smuggle” a priest in. Ash Wednesday observance could not leave anyone with visible ashes, since the Saudi religious police were vigilant and hostile. Therefore, some priests sprinkled the ashes on the tops of our heads. Others put the ashes on our wrists. I was always profoundly affected by these services, provided under extremely difficult circumstances.

By: Maggie McT

Maggie McT — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:38:33 +0000

Me, I’d just like to hear “You are dust.” For years all I’ve heard is “Turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel.” I don’t argue with the sentiment, and I know it’s an acceptable alternative, but I always have the feeling it’s an attempt to “be nice” instead of really calling us to reality.

By: J. Bob

J. Bob — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:27:55 +0000

I think the term dust, is interesting, in that it implies we were created out of God’s universe, star dust sort to speak.

Dirt on the other hand, implies worthlessness, something different then being created in the image of God.

By: Judy K. Warner

Judy K. Warner — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:22:30 +0000

A worldly comment: Our western civilization was created by men who believed they were dust and to dust they would return, and that they were miserable sinners who needed to repent and confess. That civilization is being dismantled by, among others, those who believe self-esteem is to be promoted as the highest good. Of course they have no need of salvation, since they are their own salvation.

By: Lenten Reading « Like A Deer

Lenten Reading « Like A Deer — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 05:26:07 +0000

[...] Mills from First Things (Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 1:44 PM) The Dust of Adam I just returned from the noon Mass at a nearby church, where the priest imposed the ashes with the [...]

By: Steve Drake

Steve Drake — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:05:39 +0000

David Mills said,
‘First the obvious: Ash Wednesday is the holy day on which you are asked to face the facts about yourself. It is the church year’s “downer.” On every other holy day — Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost most obviously — we celebrate a great work of God’s, but on Ash Wednesday we are asked to remember why God did what he did in all those works we celebrate, and especially to see as clearly as possible our own role in sending his Son to die in such agony on the Cross.’

Couldn’t agree more. A sad commentary of our time however, that we don’t see “For in the day you eat of it, dying you shall die” (Gen. 2:17), and “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19), as check and checkmate of Adam’s sin that brought death into fruition in this world. You rightly point out that, ‘For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead’ (I Cor. 15:21). Paul calls ‘death’ and enemy, the ‘last’ enemy (I Cor. 15:26), but says that in the end it will be abolished, confer. Rev. 21:4. What a glorious hope that the sin in us which rightly deserves ‘death’, will be ‘swallowed up in victory’ I Cor. 15:54) , and the sting of death be no more.

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:46:51 +0000

Every Ash Wednesday I read this classic “While We’re at It” from Fr. Neuhaus. Scroll down to the end:

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/02/is-mormonism-christian-8