Spreading The Word

They apparently had a PHENOMENAL Ash Wednesday at BART (I wrote a bit about what had been planned, the day before yesterday). A dozen clergy and lay people including my friends Father Bertie and Mother Rosa Lee, held a simple service at the station and imposed ashes on hundreds and hundreds of people.

Said Father Bertie: “Waves of commuters would come streaming from the BART escalators, and their responses ranged from complete confusion to overwhelming gratitude. The sight of an altar, 12 women and men of diverse ages in cassocks, swinging thuribles and marking ash crosses on the foreheads of Philippina grandmothers, homeless men and mission hipsters was undoubtably something of a spectacle, and was apparently documented on about a 1000 camera phones.”

At Holy Innocents Church, where some of the clergy and many of the laity came from, they at an Ash Wednesday Eucharist at 6:30 and had planned a simple soup supper there at the church to follow that with a reflection piece for the children who came for ashes and for the people who were at both the service at the church and at the BART station. Their vicar, Mother Rosa Lee reports “When we got back from BART the service inside was still going on and on my way downstairs to make final arrangements for the supper, peeked inside the nave and it was PACKED. At least double any service we have had on Ash Wednesday since I've been there. AND we had had at least 15 Holy Innocents people participate at BART in one way or another. My observation is that when the people of God know that there is work going on in the world, whether they are physically part of it or not, they feel it in the Body and show up. It was very exciting and gratifying to see how the work in the world strengthened the whole.” Indeed Mother. Indeed!

I wish I could be in two places at once. How wonderful that there was some much excitement for Jesus out on the streets! I was at another service, but thanks be to God for the witness and ministry of these wonderful people who are spreading The Word!