Ash Wednesday Quotes

“Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still”
― T.S. Eliot

“No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice”
― T.S. Eliot

“And you and I know you’re the best thing that ever happened to me, and, yes, that’s an expression, something people say, that has no meaning, but what I mean is there isn’t anybody in the whole world who has loved me the way you have, not my mother, not my old man, not my friends.
There’s nothing preventing me and you from loving each other and being some kinda world-class shining beacon of love except how bad do we want it and what are we willing to do for it?
Now, I know I did you wrong, and I was freaking out and being stupid and I was mean to you. You know sometimes I get all fucking confused and I can’t see outside of my own asshole. I’m unhappy. Why am I unhappy? It’s gotta be somebody’s fault, right? It couldn’t just be that I’m a self-centered fuck spinning around inside my own dank cloud of concerns.
There isn’t anything I can think of that I really want or that the best part of me wants, that loving you won’t start doing. I love you.”
― Ethan Hawke, Ash Wednesday

“Every time he opens his mouth I have absolutely no idea what he’s gonna say. He’s the most honest person I’ve ever met. He’s a quick study and rarely needs to make the same mistake twice. He really tries to learn, and does, and he makes me laugh, and the world’s generally a lighter place when he’s in my sight.”
― Ethan Hawke, Ash Wednesday

“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19”
― Bible

“Pray for those who chose and oppose”
― T.S. Eliot

“Receive this cross of ash upon your brow
Brought from the burning of Palm Sunday's cross;
The forests of the world are burning now
And you make late repentance for the loss.
But all the trees of God would clap their hands,
The very stones themselves would shout and sing,
If you could covenant to love these lands
And recognize in Christ their lord and king.
He sees the slow destruction of those trees,
He weeps to see the ancient places burn,
And still you make what purchases you please
And still to dust and ashes you return.
But Hope could rise from ashes even now
Beginning with this sign upon your brow.”
― Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness

“Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only.”
― T.S. Eliot

“Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice”
― T. S. Eliot, Poems

“Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems

“When shame overwhelms us, grace still surrounds us.”
― Todd Stocker