So Why Ashes (Charles M. Herrold, Jr.)

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• (Posted 2025-02-13)  CPDL #83833:     

Editor: Charles M. Herrold Jr. (submitted 2025-02-13).   Score information: Letter, 7 pages, 116 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: So why ashes
Composer: Charles M. Herrold, Jr.
Lyricist: Lou Ella Hickman^{create page}
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Anthem

Language: English
Instruments: Organ

First published: 2025
Description: Prayer for Ash Wednesday. Based on words by Sr. Lou Ella Hickman and Luke 12:49.

Original text and translations

English text

I have come to light a fire on the earth
You are dust and to dust you shall return,
So why ashes, those sooty remains of palm branch holocausts rather than dirt from a fertile field or an empty lot overrun with plants and weeds, to remind us that evil grows among the good. Yet ashes proclaim this day of dust a beginning and a consummation, marking us with His dark, sacred solidarity.