{"id":330,"date":"2026-02-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/?p=330"},"modified":"2025-12-23T22:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:07:21","slug":"ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"277\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/12\/26-02-16-DSC_1219-byCherylBC-1200px-277x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/12\/26-02-16-DSC_1219-byCherylBC-1200px-277x1024.jpg 277w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/12\/26-02-16-DSC_1219-byCherylBC-1200px-81x300.jpg 81w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/12\/26-02-16-DSC_1219-byCherylBC-1200px-303x1120.jpg 303w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/12\/26-02-16-DSC_1219-byCherylBC-1200px.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cThen I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, \u2018Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments.\u2019\u201d <\/em><br>&#8211; Daniel 9:3-4 (NRSVue)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\"><br>Activity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Daniel\u2019s prayer in the Old Testament book of same name\u2014with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes\u2014echoes present-day practices on Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on Wednesday, Feb. 18. At the beginning of the season of Lent, Christians around the world attend Ash Wednesday services where they receive the mark of ashes on their foreheads as a sign of repentance and confession of sins. Many also begin a season of fasting in Lent, sometimes giving up favorite or luxury foods until Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">What can you give up for Lent? How would giving up that thing represent repentance for you, and how would it help you recommit to your faith?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThen I turned to the Lord God to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, \u2018Ah, Lord, great and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments.\u2019\u201d &#8211; Daniel 9:3-4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-tiny-retreat"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/pause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}